The Swedish Experiment

Abstract

This short book explores Sweden’s response to the global pandemic and the wave of controversies it triggered. It helps to makes sense of the response by defining ‘a Swedish model’ that incorporates the country’s value system and offers a case study for understanding the ways in which different national approaches to the pandemic have been compared.

Follow the science: The European public health community confronts the first wave of the COVID‐19 pandemic

“…To demonstrate that variation was not driven by idiosyncratic features of the Swedish constitution and to address the popular perception that Sweden was an outlier in its COVID‐19 response (Aucante, 2022), we also examine the Dutch case. The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM: Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu ) was established in 1996 as an independent agency in the Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Sport.…”

“…Yet on that day, 94 countries had reported cases of COVID‐19 and the number of infected people globally had surpassed 100,000 (Pashakhanlou, 2022). As in the Netherlands, there was a tendency to downplay the severity and challenges of the coronavirus (Aucante, 2022; Engström et al, 2021).…”

“…The goal was to reduce the impact on citizens and businesses while managing hospital capacity. Closing schools, for example, should be weighed against complicating the life of health workers, many of whom had young children and should also take into consideration the psychological impact on children (Aucante, 2022, pp. 82–84).…”