As part of our continuing series of “Pandemic Diaries,” we publish situation reports from our colleagues and correspondents all over the world. In this latest diary, we hear from Travel Writer Doug Lansky, who is in Stockholm, Sweden.
Here in Stockholm, you could say we’re having an UNLOCKDOWN.
They’re leaving it up to each individual to decide how much precaution they want to take, but they are asking people to work from home if they can and maintain social distancing. But many people are going to work who don’t need to be there (still traffic jams everyday) stores and restaurants are open… less busy than usual, but the restaurants that are hard to get a reservation at are still not easy to get a reservation at. The parks are busy and all the health clubs have seemingly moved their group training outside and you see people in groups working out everywhere while maintaining a bit more distance. Some of the cafes have taped “X” across every other table with a note that says “please don’t sit here due to social distancing.”
When I meet my friends for lunch, we typically sit at an outdoor cafe, and those are very busy. Still too cold to eat outside for dinner.
The general feeling, even among the doctors and public health officials I know personally, is that Sweden is doing things the right way, that even though the death total is much higher than our fellow Scandinavian countries, we have exposed more people to the virus and are likely only a few weeks away from herd immunity. There’s a huge convention center down the road from where I live that has been converted into a field hospital. It’s basically empty. The ICU staff is fatigued and the system is strained, but it’s not overloaded. There are still beds and ventilators available. Maybe that’s because Sweden is healthier than other countries or we have cleaner air or the high-quality free healthcare for all is paying dividends now — no one knows.
The experts here say that when they ease up the quarantines in the other Scandinavian countries, their death tolls will increase while ours will be slowing down. Plus, there’s the value of maintaining freedom and mobility and keeping the economy going. (My public health friend would certainly want me to point out that countries are not recording COVID-19 deaths in a way they can easily compare. Some countries, for example, don’t count the deaths if they occurred in a nursing home. Sweden counts everything, even if it wasn’t actually Corona that ended up causing the death… as long as they had Corona within 30 days of dying).
The basic thinking here is that it’s far too early to say that South Korea or Iceland or Taiwan or even Sweden has done it “right”… that there are so many other factors at play and we just won’t have the data from that for some time. Like the effect of lockdown on depression or domestic abuse or disrupting the food supply or diminishing charity aid to regions of the world that are depending on it. Or even how all this focus on COVID-19 is keeping other people away from healthcare who need it. For example, people are skipping their mammograms (and other important testing) because they’re afraid of the virus, and some will then not detect cancer until it’s too late.
When I speak to my friends on zoom or on the phone, some are appalled at what Sweden is doing. But most are jealous of the freedom.
