Most countries responded to COVID-19 in similar ways: shut down the economy, institute health mandates, and try to “flatten the curve.” Some countries did this well: South Korea, Ghana – and some did it poorly: Brazil and the U.S.
Sweden, however, did things COMPLETELY different.
Sweden did NOT mandate masks or economic shutdowns, instead encouraging voluntary complicity. And perhaps because of Sweden’s communalist culture, people largely complied!
Whether it worked, though, is still not clear.
Sweden had a lower ratio of infections, and similar ratio of deaths, compared to America – and deaths are dropping. Sweden also believes it will avoid the second wave of outbreaks associated with re-opening economies.
What won’t be a part of their response, though? Masks.
“[Masks] cannot be the main tool we use,” said Sweden’s prime minister – they’re hard to enforce and can even encourage reckless behavior, he explained. “What is important still is social distancing, testing and tracking.”
Many Americans fought against mask guidelines and refused to social distance. America has had low-quality testing and tracking. Given America’s individualist culture, would COVID-19 have been even worse if we had tried Sweden’s model?
A COVID-19 resurgence is taking place across the world as lockdowns are relaxed – but Sweden has nothing to relax. Only time will tell whose approach was best.