Sweden's COVID Response - A Firsthand Experience

October 31, 2020 — by Per Christensson

For two weeks in October, I lived in Sweden — a country that never locked down and never required masks. Today, life is almost like pre-corona times. People go shopping, hang out with friends, and go out to eat at restaurants.

Almost no Swedes wear masks in public spaces.

Instead of enforcing extreme measures like other countries, Sweden responded to the coronavirus with three primary actions:

1. Encouraging people to keep their distance in public places
2. Suggesting people do not use public transportation if possible
3. Limiting most gatherings to 50 people or less

Based on my firsthand experience, these actions – or suggestions – seem to be working well. Life is almost normal in Sweden and the health impact of the coronavirus has not been worse than most other countries. Sweden was affected a little more on the front-end of the pandemic. However, a few weeks ago, the weekly covid death total was in the single digits for the entire country of 10 million people.

I felt the need to post this update because news outlets refuse to report this information. I recently read an article by TIME titled "The Swedish COVID-19 Response Is a Disaster" (published October 14, 2020). It was one lie after another after another. One quote that stands out is, "The Swedish way has yielded little but death and misery." Nothing could be further from the truth. Swedes are happy, businesses are thriving, and people are not living in fear.

News outlets do not want to share the positive news about Sweden because they benefit from bad news. When people live in fear, they rely on the news to tell them what to do and why they should be afraid. Regardless of what the news tells us, please be considerate of others. But do not live in fear.