Sweden girds for deaths amid ‘virus policy’

Bloomberg

There are signs that the death rate in Sweden is growing faster than elsewhere in Scandinavia, raising pressure on the government to abandon its controversial hands-off approach in tackling Covid-19.
The Swedish experiment has drawn international bewilderment as schools, restaurants and cafes have remained open. And while other countries passed laws restricting movement, Sweden’s prime minister Stefan Lofven relied on the common sense of his fellow citizens to carry his country through the pandemic.
But after a week of sobering data, Lofven now seems to be striking a darker tone. In an interview published by Dagens Nyheter, he warned that Sweden may be facing “thousands” of coronavirus deaths, and said the crisis is likely to drag on
for months rather than weeks. Meanwhile, criticism from across the political spectrum forced his Social Democrat-led government to back down on a proposal to bypass parliament when implementing sterner measures to fight the virus, according to local media reports on Sunday.
The number of Swedish deaths rose to 373 on April 3, up 12% from April 4. That brings the rate per million in Scandinavia’s biggest economy to 36, compared with 29 in Denmark and 9 in Norway, where much tougher lockdowns are in place.
Sweden’s top epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, says the goal in his country, like everywhere else, is to “flatten the curve” to avoid overwhelming hospitals. As of last week, he said that curve is “starting to become somewhat steeper, but overall” remains “fairly flat.”
But Covid-19 comes with so many unknowns that Sweden’s approach has some of its own experts worried.
“They are used to making evidence-based decisions, but that doesn’t work for a pandemic like this, where key coordinates are unknown,” said Claudia Hanson, a Stockholm-based senior lecturer in global public health.
The history of social isolation as an intelligent response to outbreaks like Covid-19 is compelling. Roughly a century ago, when the world was dealing with the Spanish flu, two US cities ended up becoming case studies due to their very different approaches.