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Original poster

Sweden not in lockdown

54 replies

Tiggering · 26/03/2020 23:15

Sweden is still not in lockdown. The schools are open, businesses have continued to work and most public transport is still running. They are relying on people washing their hands, staying at home if they have symptoms and self isolating if they are vulnerable. I wonder if it is working. Would a similar policy have worked in England?

foreignpolicy.com/2020/03/24/sweden-coronavirus-open-for-business/

OP posts:
SeasonallySnowyPeasant · 26/03/2020 23:17

Even if it would have worked, everyone was slamming Boris for not putting the country into lockdown.

mac12 · 26/03/2020 23:19

I thought I’d read they are about to pivot as we did in uk & lockdown Stockholm? The numbers are just too scary. I’m not sure there’s a govt in the world that would the stomach to let this thing go unchecked through their population.

HairyFloppins · 26/03/2020 23:19

I think I read earlier that they are considering putting Stockholm on lockdown now as cases/deaths are rising a lot now.

Original poster
Tiggering · 26/03/2020 23:19

Where did you read that Stockholm will go into lockdown?

OP posts:
Northernsoullover · 26/03/2020 23:21

Yesterday bars and cafes were still open. Citizens were being encouraged to go outdoors and exercise. My friends live there. It is almost business as usual.

HairyFloppins · 26/03/2020 23:22

Snap mac12!

It was on the Daily Mail this morning OP.

middleager · 26/03/2020 23:22

I read it in the Daily Mail Shock

Hazelnutlatteplease · 26/03/2020 23:26

They're not stopping the spread. So i dont think its working particularly well for them....

PersonaNonGarter · 26/03/2020 23:29

What do you want though? We needed to stay home to help the NHS - they are already struggling in London.

Why take the risk?

LangClegsInSpace · 26/03/2020 23:40

Would a similar policy have worked in England?

This is pretty much what we did, hence the mess we are in. Sweden are about a week behind us

Beingyellow · 26/03/2020 23:44

I think the reason they don't want to close schools etc is its quite common in Sweden to have holidays homes by the beach etc. Probably not wanting what happened in Italy to happen to them with everyone going to their holiday homes and spreading the virus.

Derbygerbil · 26/03/2020 23:50

I’ve looked at the figures and I’m worried about Sweden. They don’t feature near the top of lists as their population is relatively small, but they have more cases per million than the UK, and almost as many deaths per million as the UK. If they haven’t yet implemented social distancing, let alone lockdown they are dicing with disaster imo.

Derbygerbil · 26/03/2020 23:51

This is pretty much what we did, hence the mess we are in. Sweden are about a week behind us

The figures suggest they are on a par with us!

playthestation · 26/03/2020 23:57

They are relying on people washing their hands, staying at home if they have symptoms and self isolating if they are vulnerable.

Would a similar policy have worked in England?

Without being rude, where have you been? This is what we did do. It didn't work.

Original poster
Tiggering · 27/03/2020 04:59

I just reread my op and realised I haven’t made myself clear. I come from the UK and I am currently in Sweden. I hear how awful many people are finding lockdown and I wonder if England would have done better to follow the same path as Sweden.

OP posts:
Orerref · 27/03/2020 05:23

If you look at the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of behaviour, Ireland went into lockdown with far fewer cases and maybe one death. The last figures I've heard from them were 7 deaths. They moved about 10 days before the UK when they were statistically about 2 weeks behind the UK as it was.

steff13 · 27/03/2020 05:23

It's probably too early to say. Sweden could still be in the early stages.

Lockdownshockdown · 27/03/2020 05:23

We were following it. However, numbers are still rising. It takes, whatever steps are taken, weeks to show if its improved things or not.

So no one knows. Our curve isnt as bad as Italy's. It may turn out the steps we started a few weeks ago have made some improvement. I doubt, however, it's enough to stop the pressure on the NHS.

The article linked said it's harder for them to implement lockdown in Sweden. But it still maybe something they do eventually.

It depends on how healthcare there, can deal with it.

Lockdown isnt really to stop the population getting it, completely. It's to slow the spread down, to ease the burden on the NHS. Rather than being swamped all at once.

We are only 5 days in. It could be another 9-16 days before we see any benefit of it.

Orerref · 27/03/2020 05:24

About 2 weeks ago Trump was gloating about how few cases he had. Now they're getting 5k new cases a day.

Orerref · 27/03/2020 05:28

Where are the UK in terms of cases/deaths now? And where are Sweden? And Ireland who seemed to make a move far quicker than anywhere else? I know Ireland has announced they are following the S. Korean model which has proven to be the most effective according to their leader. Their leader is a doctor though, which might account for the foresight they appear to have had.

Toybox88 · 27/03/2020 05:36

Triggering not sure what you mean as this is what the UK did...

Failedtothinkofanythingorigina · 27/03/2020 05:37

How does Sweden's health care service compare to the UK's? Given the high tax rates I'd assume it is in a much better state but I don't know.

APheasantPluckersSon · 27/03/2020 05:38

I think it could be interesting to compare Denmark and Sweden. Denmark started their lockdown 2 weeks ago and the figures then were pretty much the same as Sweden back then so I would assume differences in figures from here on in would be as a result of lockdown or no?

I think both countries also changed their testing strategy 2 weeks ago although Sweden is currently testing more? But Denmark is now stepping up the testing as of next week (they have more tests coming and universities will help them to test).

Orerref · 27/03/2020 05:50

That's another difference. Ireland were testing anyone with 1 symptom - there were pop-up testing centres all over the country. They've now pushed that back to only testing those with 2 or more symptoms. The UK are only testing those admitted to hospital.