Understanding Sweden in the Days of Corona

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I met the democracy and tolerance of Sweden in my childhood and youth thanks to Bülent Ecevit and Zülfü Livaneli. I always admired it for giving sanctuary to the ones who fled the country in times of coup, its democracy and the modest lives led by its royal family, prime ministers and ministers. Even the fact that Olof Palme was killed while walking around without guards has not changed the way how people behave.

Not only with its democracy, Sweden has also become an exemplary country for me with its worldwide success in medicine. The first study which showed that cholesterol medicine would increase the life expectancy of those who had a heart attack and, thereby, enabled millions of people to lead a healthy life was also conducted by physicians from Sweden.

In the days of corona, the attitude towards the Swedish has changed. While the whole world is in quarantine, with schools closed and people locked up in their homes in one way or another, it has attracted attention that restaurants and cafes can stay open, people can partly continue going to work, they can have picnic and barbecue and the ones aged 70 and over can go out on the street by keeping their social distance in Sweden. The fact that the fatality rate caused by coronavirus is three times higher than its neighbor Norway has caused controversy. There are even those who say, "Old people are being sacrificed to acquire herd immunity."

As for the Swedish epidemiologists, they have a different perspective on the pandemic. It partly reminds one of the movie "Dead Poets Society." They believe in herd immunity. Based on the fact that Covid-19 is a very contagious disease, they say that it will spread to everyone in one way or another. They emphasize that quarantine will do nothing but delay the spread of the disease, in the event of a slightest easing of measures, the number of positive cases and deaths will increase with the second wave and the number of deaths will be equal after a year.

The people of Sweden have absolute trust in their government and scientists. They heed the warnings word by word. The economy of Sweden seems to survive the pandemic with minimum damage.

On the other side, my answer to the question "Can a similar attitude be adopted in Turkey?" would be a clear "No."

Every country and individual approaches the pandemic from their own point of view. The time will tell which measures are successful. (MB/DB/SD)