Sweden pays human and economic price for not locking down

Sweden's approach to the coronavirus pandemic has been controversial as the country opted against locking down to protect the economy. However, Sweden hasn't been spared from great economic pain.

#CNN #News

103 comments

  1. America is

    23 in education.
    37 in healthcare.
    52 in gender equality.
    No high-speed train.
    Highest number of homeless people.
    Highest number of incarcerated people.
    78% of people live paycheck to paycheck.

    Stock market is not economy of Americans! Where 90% of money belongs to top 10% of the population, it’s wallet for the rich.

    Let’s talk like adults, instead of name calling.

    I have left the proof on my playlist, if you would like to check!

    Let’s make our country better..

    1. Agolf Twittler …. ok but I also would have accepted… Donny Golden Showers, Agent Orange, Bone Spurs Mcbunker boy or Trumpty Dumpty……….. any way you choose to call him just know that I’m voting for Joe ByeDon 👋😃

    2. Your list is close to what I have , without looking it up . I can cringe on the USA , USA , number one parade . Our country is slowly waking up , when Pence , Rudy , Donnie, Tucker , and the Lou Dobbs brigade start crying , Biden is a Progressive , and over 50% of voters start laughing , I consider that better .

  2. “I have the biggest unemployment. My unemployment is so huge you wouldn’t believe it. People tell me all the time they’ve never seen unemployment this big before. It’s incredible.” 👌😮👌

    1. @Hildebeast Clinton The irony of you whining about Democrats’ intellectual perversions, myths, and lies… is that exactly zero of your examples of Democrats’ statements have actually been made by any Democrat, anywhere, any place, any time. Every last word of it is a straw man.

      The Trump Faithful have no ammo left. Their only option is to lie, lie, and lie some more.
      Wouldn’t you rather be right for once? Wouldn’t you feel so much better not having to deny reality with every breath you take? I speak for all rational people when I say we’d love to have you on board the reality train, right here at our side. You will always be welcome here my friend.

    2. takamex New York has never denied their numbers, ever. They were hit HARD at the beginning of an unknown viral pandemic. Of COURSE their death rate was higher 🙄🤦🏻‍♀️. Did the other states learn anything from New York?? Apparently not enough. Some new treatments that save some lives, to be sure. But how to stop the spread, nope nothing.

    3. @El DD Yes, the point you make is that it is difficult to have fair comparisons at this point until the pandemic ends. But that is not what this Fake News hit piece was doing. I just showed how easily you can present the information very differently. The DNC Fake News media is only about creating hit pieces against Trump and for Bidementia.

    1. I am so happy to hear you say that, pls all “Feeling the Bidementia” supporters tell any friends you may have in Florida to move where you live. Florida is nasty and hot and ugly. Pls call them right away!

  3. Strange. So placing economics of the Wealthy above the Lives of the citizens can hurt the Politicians in charge?
    Didn’t see that coming.

    1. We didn’t place economics above lives. Our public health care agency that decided on the strategy is exactly that. Public Health. It concerns itself with all aspects, from effects of job-loss, loss of education, postponed surgery, cancer, heart, etc. American CDC is only concerning itself with disease. It leads to other priorities.
      Polls put 71% of Swedes as having high or very high confidence in the current strategy. The strategy is to keep a as open society as possible, while no overwhelming the healthcare systems. And we haven’t. Since we’re down to less than 1/10th of patients compared to April now.

    2. GAPPY I WANT TO GO BACK TO WORK. IM NOT WEALTHY. I DONT LIVE OFF FOOD STAMPS AND DISABILITY LIKE YOURSELF.

    3. @WooT WooT but for how long? They won’t be able to create generational income if they close down and never open back up. That money will run dry and their descendants won’t be born with a silver spoon in their mouth anymore.

  4. Trump took a test for people with ALZHEIMER. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment.

    Trump said the last 5 questions were really difficult. 😂😂😂

    1. Dave S Please Dave, don’t insult any child over 6 years old. They have the ability to understand common sense, or even knows to look things up on google. But thanks for your comment😊

  5. Trump: “We have the best mortality rate!” It’s comforting to know that people die better in America than anywhere else. I know I wouldn’t be caught dead anywhere else.

    1. @Rhona PetersonIn many countries in Africa, they have very strict quarantine measures for anyone coming into their countries, strict mask policies for their residents when out and about, and that has helped them to have a low infection rate.

    2. David J Don’t forget the United States has the dumbest President ever. Just ask Putin in Russia or President Xi in China. They will both tell you Trump is one dumb sucker.

    3. whaledog77 I love you you bozos! Why aren’t living somewhere else, I’ve lived in a couple shithole countries before and I loved it👄

  6. They stayed open to save economy over people and the economy still contracted anyway and people still died. Brilliant.
    Also their chief medical scientist admitted to being wrong over his herd immunity strategy.

    1. unknown unknown
      Why is it that you right wingers always have such appalling spelling and grammar? I can barely understand what you attempted to write. And there have been plenty of segments done about Trump’s goons rounding up protestors in Portland at random. Thanks for so obviously demonstrating your lack of education and intellectual capacity.

    2. Keith Johnson – Shelby GT500
      That’s one article’s opinion. From a not very credible source.

    1. STAY HOME ON MORPHINE AINT HEALTH CARE DUMMY, DIDNT YOU READ YOU CAN EXPECT SAME MESS FROM DEMON RATS WAKE UP

    2. @Bossolo does things Trump recently put a 30 dollar price cap on insulin. They can’t price gouge people anymore.

    1. @Richard Hammonds Trump doesn’t do anything fast. Well, except for throwing former employees under the bus. Literally every where else acted faster than that idiot. He wasted two months lying about it. I really don’t understand why you cult members can’t see his failures. He doesn’t care about any of you. Wake up!!!!!he is absolutely undefendable at this point. He has had more than a few chances to get this sht right and he has chosen not to. He is in denial and his supporters are in denial.

    2. @Richard Hammonds and wtf does Obama have to do with it? Y’all need to move the f on. Take responsibility and stop passing the blame around.

    3. @Edison Moore OH YOU DONT KNOW ,,, WE LEARN FROM HISTORY ,,LIKE COMMIE OBAMMIE WHINED ABOUT BUSH FOR 8 YRS HAHAH AND COMMIE OBAMMIE AIDED THE ENEMY AND PUT 11 MILLION ON WELFARE TRUMP LEARNED HOW TO TAKE THEM OFF ,,,JOBS HAHAH THIS ALL FROM HISTORY THE BEST TEACHER WE HAVE IS HISTORY WE LEARNED TO NOT DO WHAT COMMIE OBAMMIE DID ,,THATS WHAT B O HAD TO DO WITH IT

    1. @Stephanie Campbell The virus is not that bad. Also no one cares about human lives or etc.

  7. And yet you still have people advocating that we should go for herd immunity and let it loose without a vaccine. (sigh) This is not a binary choice between “open everything!” and “close everything!” Mitigation strategies work, believe it or not.

    1. @E C I understand that their is more trust in the government in Sweden and less division amongst the political sides. Is that correct and is it a factor in how people are handling themselves? In the US the level of division is deep and behaviour reflects the lack of basic care and consideration for each other. Hence the unwillingness by too many to be thoughtful and cautious while going about normality as much as possible.

    2. @C J that number can double every two weeks. Every infected person spreads the disease to 2.5 people, within two weeks. Unchecked, the increase is exponential. Start school and the rate goes up because the stats were compiled from locked down countries. The little super spreaders will bring it home. Large extended families, living close together will be hit hardest. Bye grandpa, bye grandma. The unemployed can get jobs as embalming assistants and grave diggers. Be a good time to invest in funeral homes and the casket industry.

    3. @C J not just the elderly. 50, 60 and 70 year olds are still in the workforce. They like to eat and need insurance supplements, so they’re still working.

    4. @Future man The column on that site that you need to focus on is “deaths per million”. That is the ultimate number that decides success or failure. Sweden has 558 deaths per million population which is 5th worse in the world after Belgium, UK, Spain, and Italy. The U.S. is fairing only slightly better, but we’ll probably pass them in the next few weeks the way we are going. Doing research is pointless if you don’t know what’s important.

    5. @C J Agreed. It’s a big IF, especially now that there is also some question regarding the longevity of antibodies. Some studies are revealing they can fall off after a few months, meaning that even a vaccine may not protect for very long.

    1. @FutureCatcher I’ve been talking to flat earthers. They also want evidence proving common knowledge. No, you don’t understand the easiest things. You just can’t get things straight. 🙂 Swedens strategy gets the same result as other countries, with harder lockdowns. According to your (!) source. So, your conclusion is that Sweden has failed and other countries, with similar results (!), has succeeded. Yeah…

    2. @Mats K Also what common knowledge exactly? You know you can’t make an argument without concrete evidence, something which you’ve mocked, and in fact lack.

    3. @FutureCatcher So, you didn’t understand the (childishly easy) questions. 🙂 Wow. The question was: how many died in April? Your answer is: 2798.
      How many died in May? Your answer is: 4581.
      How many died in June? Your answer is: 5481.
      Not the answer to my question, dude. But a person with rudimentary skills in math (which you obviously lack) can see that the number of covid 19 deaths are dropping. Not increasing. And if less people die, less people die. Surely you understand that? No?! Wtf…
      So, please explain the phrase: flattening the curve? Ah, you can’t…

    4. @FutureCatcher “It’s simply not true that less people are dying from Covid-19 in Sweden, numbers have been on the rise all through the pandemic…” Well, the numbers you (!) gave me proves you wrong. 🙂 So, you’re a liar or a complete moron. What is it?

    5. @FutureCatcher “What common knowledge?” 🙂 Like how curves work? Phrases like “flattening the curve”? You clearly don’t understand numbers. You’re pasting sources proving your opponent right. That means you don’t understand. And that’s ok. Just accept it, instead of spreading lies.

    1. Epidemiologist here is Sweden think we already have it here in the Stockholm area. It is hard to explain why there is no spread any longer. It is not only anti-bodies, it is also T-cell immunity etc.

    2. Humans have lived with viruses as long as we have existed. Never have we hidden away in our houses like this.

    3. Felipe Murillo No, but we have never had a society like this and we have at times lost 1/3 the human population in a single outbreak of a virus. If they couldn’t find room for the bodies at a time when we had less than a quarter the current population, what do you think it would look like now?

    4. @Joakim Wahlström The reason it doesn’t spread much is bc the number of people who already had covid is much higher than the official numbers that are based on testing. That’s my opinion anyway.

    5. @tabby73 Yeah… that is what herd immunity is. The virus travel through enough people, who get partial or full immunity. Then it becomes harder and harder for the virus to infect more, and the spread dies off.

  8. The 7 day moving average death rate in Sweden is 2 and falling if it were the size of the USA it would be 70 the US 7 day average is 880 and rising.
    It doesn’t take a genius to work out whose done better.

    1. True, but ranking deaths/million shows that a lock down would have reduced preventable deaths as did Australia when numbers were initially low and the tourism economy was impacted regardless. It’s a matter of values vs the economy. Brazil and Sweden got it wrong. Both are back tracking before it gets out of hand.

    2. It’s not just about opening up the economy. I’m sure they were disciplined enough to socal distance and not crowd in bars and restaurants like fools. There are multiple variables that play into this.

    3. @Mike W. no but if you measure mortality rates over the year, then you can compare, and mortality rate looks like a pretty normal year in Sweden. Had far worse years than 2020 without lock downs

    4. Apples and oranges. The US has so many people in the high risk group, as we have a very overweight, diabetic population. The US would have had far more deaths if it stayed open, as the hospitals wouldn’t be able to keep up at all.

    1. Sweden is a mixed economy like most these days. It is pro-capitalism…but very heavily taxed to give big social programs: Personal income is taxed at a rate of 61.85 percent, plus a 7 percent social security tax rate for employees. On top of these taxes, Sweden also has a 25 percent consumption tax. Social programs include pension, health care, unemployment Insurance, education through Ph.D. level, child day care, parental leave up to 16 months with 80 % of your pay during time off.

    2. Jen Vanderbilt, can you please back up your theory with truth?
      No, never. There’s no evidence masks/coverings work. Wearing one for Long periods of time is detrimental to your health. Learn facts, first, before you spew some propaganda, next time.

    3. Jen Vanderbilt, I’ll break it down for you, so you can understand.
      Cover your eyes – lose vision
      Cover your ears – lose hearing
      Cover your mouth/nose – lose oxygen/air flow
      If you don’t understand that. There’s no help for you. There’s more, but it’s too complex for a simpleton, such as yourself.

    4. I think any country that isn’t a fascist state is considered socialist to Americans.
      Any country that has free education, health care and unemployment benefits is considered communist to most Americans.

    5. Bernie Sanders rolls his eyes LOL. America TF! We can do better than this but I am glad we didn’t follow Sweden on COVID. American Republican capitalism and government keeps failing the average American yet they continue to get power.

  9. i mean the funny part is that their economy is wrecked like everyone else’s….I mean what did they expect?

    1. I kept saying that it is not the lock down that affects the economy it is the virus.
      Sick people are an economic drain. In America which does not have a safety net one person sick can affect families economically, whole communities sick affects the country.

    2. @goff0103 you are absolutely right if you compare Sweden to our Nordic neighbors. Still and as shown elsewhere, every country or region has its own context. Sweden has the largest city among Nordic countries as well as heavy air traffic compared to our Nordic countries. Roughly half of all infections have occurred in Stockholm. Similarly, Yew York state, Italy and the United Kingdom has lots of air traffic. This spread the virus rapidly before the severe restrictions on air travel were put in place.
      Norway is rich enough to take a serious hit to their economy. We shall see how thing work out with Finland and Denmark.
      However, what really amazes me is how Germany, the largest EU country and situated smack in the middle of Europe, was able to get away with such minor effects of the Covid 19. We all have much to learn from each other on how to deal and not to deal with this pandemic.

    1. That’s because we don’t speak the Queen’s English. We speak American. One of the most convoluted broken made up languages on Earth. Lol!

    2. I speak 3 languages but I don’t know English very well and I live in the USA, its not must English.

  10. The headline conclusion “…price for staying open” is simply wrong. The examples given in the clip are all consequences of the effect of actions taken to prevent spread both from domestic and international stakeholders. Sweden did not stay open at all. It is most unfortunate to make such a cheap angle. Not CNNs brightest moment.

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