The Swedish approach has won praise from figures on the American right such as Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who have suggested that it provides a model for the US to follow.“There are people who are really diligent and are doing exactly what they should do, but there are too many who don’t,” said Elisabeth Asbrink, a Swedish author, freelance journalist and prominent critic of the government’s approach. Figures compiled by data analysis website Statista show that the total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Sweden has been increasing steadily since the beginning of April – and now stands at more than 29,000.Experts say the other Nordic countries are the most apt points of comparison, given their similar healthcare systems, socio-political cultures and levels of connectedness. If Sweden had implemented “a broad testing programme, and especially in elder care”, she continued, the authorities would have “known who is infected, and now, with antibody testing, who was infected”.The Swedish government has said that its policies are effectively decided by scientific officials such as the state’s chief epidemiologist Anders Tegnell, who has become a well-known and popular figure in the country since the start of the pandemic.
Read more at: https://www.france24.com/en/20200517-sweden-s-covid-19-strategy-has-caused-an-amplification-of-the-epidemic
