COVID19 is nearly 10 times more deadly in Sweden

COVID19 is nearly 10 times more deadly in Sweden than other Nordic countries

Three of the four Nordic countries have flattened the curve & have female prime ministers. Sweden hasn't and doesn't.

New York Times columnist and science writer, Carl Zimmer, shared an interesting graph on Twitter earlier from Our World Data pertaining to coronavirus in the nordic countries.

Three of the four nations, Finland, Norway and Denmark, appear to have significantly flattened the curve when it comes to confirmed COVID-19 deaths recorded since the 14th of March. The picture in Sweden, however, is very different with a dramatic spike in deaths.

COVID19 has been almost ten times more deadly in Sweden than the other countries, which can be attributed to the nation pursuing a very different approach. Unlike most other countries in Europe, Sweden is yet to order any lockdown and has kept schools, restaurants and gyms open.

They have recorded just under 1,937 deaths from 16,000 confirmed cases. This contrasts with Finland’s 149 deaths from 4,129 confirmed cases, or Norway’s 187 deaths from 7,338 confirmed cases. Norway and Finland have populations roughly half the size of Sweden.

Business Insider reports that the state epidemiologist who designed Sweden’s relaxed coronavirus response, Anders Tegnell, told local media that the country’s fatality rates show the spread of the virus is starting to “plateau” but the data certainly doesn’t appear to show that.

Time will tell whether Sweden’s pursuit of ‘herd immunity’ can be regarded as effective. But the death rate as it stands is difficult to reconcile with its neighbours. It’s also hard to ignore one key difference between the four nordic nations.

Three of them have female Prime Ministers. Sweden does not.

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