Sweden and Coronavirus: Unexceptional Exceptionalism
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. What Was the Swedish Strategy?
we aim to flatten the curve, slowing down the spread [of coronavirus] as much as possible—otherwise the health-care system and society are at risk of collapse… This is not a disease that can be stopped or eradicated, at least until a working vaccine is produced. We have to find long-term solutions that keeps [sic] the distribution of infections at a decent level.
2.1. Reasoning behind the Strategy
2.2. Managing the Strategy
3. The Resilience of Swedish Strategy
3.1. The Structure of Public Administration
3.2. The Nature of Public Debate on Coronavirus
3.3. The Effects of the Virus and Public Opinion
3.4. Politics and Party System
4. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Conflicts of Interest
Abbreviations
AB | Aftonbladet |
Exp. | Expressen |
DN | Dagens Nyheter |
FT | Financial Times |
SvD | Svenska Dagbladet |
SR | Sveriges Radio |
SVT | Sveriges Television |
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1 | The Swedish Institute, a public agency that, according to its website, “promotes interest and trust in Sweden around the world”, noted this international attention, and the swing between positively and negatively inclined commentary, in various reports (such as, for instance, Svenska Institutet 2020). |
2 | As of 1 July 2020, the total number of deaths was 6692 in the Nordic countries. In Sweden, it was 5497 (543 per 1 m of the national population), Denmark 606 (104), Finland 328 (59), Norway 251 (46), and Iceland 10 (29) (Worldometers 2020). |
3 | One Swedish observer made the opposite interpretation—that the country’s corona strategy signalled the end of Swedish exceptionalism (Augustin Palm 2020). |
4 | All translations from Swedish-language sources are the responsibility of the current authors. |
5 | On the same day, 16 March, Finnish colleges, universities, schools and kindergartens were closed. Those in Denmark and Norway had been closed several days before, on 11–12 March (Ellingsen and Roine 2020, pp. 8–9). Also on 12 March, the British government received the analysis that persuaded it to change strategy (Freedman 2020, p. 52). |
6 | These recommendations (allmänna råd) were, in a sense, legally binding on the individual, yet attracted no sanction if they were broken (Edwards 2020). |
7 | This, it argued, was due to weak scientific evidence of its usefulness, plus the risk that face masks might detract from the importance of staying at home when symptomatic, washing hands and keeping distance (Folkhälsomyndigheten 2020b). |
8 | In a report on Sweden, British scientists later did just that (Independent Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies 2020). |
9 | As Ellingsen and Roine (2020, pp. 6–7) note, Tegnell had previously published research that was critical of closing schools during an influenza pandemic (Cauchemez et al. 2009). Curiously, that article was co-authored with Neil Ferguson, one of the foremost British advocates of a tough lockdown in the face of coronavirus. |
10 | Even in the agency’s strategy document that had been published in 2019, scepticism towards “non-medicinal measures”, about which the findings of research were “not equivocal” (Folkhälsomyndigheten 2019, pp. 20–21), is discernible. |
11 | See, for example, Jansson (2020). In early March, a leading Swedish virologist, Fredrik Elgh, urged the Public Health Agency to take account of research into non-symptomatic transmission in its recommendations about self-isolation and protection of the vulnerable and elderly (SR 2020b, March 16; SvD 2020a, March 8; SVT 2020b, March 18). |
12 | He was initially uncertain about the infectiousness of non-symptomatic carriers (TTELA 2020, March 6), but appeared to become persuaded that they would be a major driver of infection (Giesecke 2020b). |
13 | For instance, Tegnell referred approvingly to Britain’s initial strategy (AB 2020c, March 16; Svenska YLE 2020, April 4), and to supposedly high rates of post-infection immunity among Stockholmers (Karlsten 2020b; NRK 2020, April 16), Swedish holidaymakers (SvD 2020g, April 16) and the population in general (The Local 2020, March 31). He argued that other countries, notably Finland, would experience a harsher second wave of the virus than Sweden would, because of Finland’s lower levels of immunity (FT 8 May). He made the same argument, this time referring to Denmark, in the autumn (FT 2020bSeptember 11). |
14 | In their analysis, Ellingsen and Roine (2020, pp. 5–6) suggest that greater openness about the goal of the strategy could have undermined the agency’s plan for a controlled spread of the virus. People, they argue, “may prefer to be infected early rather than engage in costly social distancing if this sacrifice merely delays the infection…If instead people hold hope that they will be able to avoid the infection altogether, they will be more careful.” |
15 | They are responsible for most public services and the major share of public sector employees (54 per cent, 889,000, in municipalities and 17 per cent, 270,000, in regions) (Ekonomifakta 2020). |
16 | In January, as the world became aware of coronavirus, the agency urged the regions to expand their testing capacity. The response was patchy; a social scientist might see evidence of a collective-action problem (Olson 1965). In mid-March, prompted by the Public Health Agency, the regions restricted tests to hospital patients and staff in health care and elderly care. In mid-April, a fortnight after the government had directed it to do so, the agency did announce its new testing strategy; but it got bogged down in disputes with the Civil Contingencies Agency and was eventually abandoned. Only in June, pushed by the national testing co-ordinator, did the agency declare that all suspected cases of infection should be tested. |
17 | These authors continued their informal collaboration and eventually formalised it through founding the Covid-19 Scientific Forum (Vetenskapsforum covid-19). |
18 | One of those foreign correspondents became known as the “mysterious” or “mad German”, whose doggedness in putting critical questions at the Public Health Agency’s press conferences, especially about the rejection of transmission by non-symptomatic carriers, distinguished him from his Swedish colleagues (Andén 2020; Exp. 2020b, April 14; Lund 2020). |
19 | This was the claim made later by the minister of health and social affairs (SVT 2020a). |
20 | Karlsten (2020c) recounts frosty exchanges with Norwegian authorities. Another comment by Tegnell about health care capacity led to a fierce response by the Italian ambassador (Ambasciata d’Italia Stoccolma 2020). |
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Andersson, S.; Aylott, N. Sweden and Coronavirus: Unexceptional Exceptionalism. Soc. Sci. 2020, 9, 232. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci9120232
Andersson S, Aylott N. Sweden and Coronavirus: Unexceptional Exceptionalism. Social Sciences. 2020; 9(12):232. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci9120232
Chicago/Turabian StyleAndersson, Staffan, and Nicholas Aylott. 2020. "Sweden and Coronavirus: Unexceptional Exceptionalism" Social Sciences 9, no. 12: 232. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci9120232