VOA: Sweden Spared Surge of Virus Cases but Many Questions Remain


The Voice of America (VOA) reported the following:

Sweden Spared Surge of Virus Cases but Many Questions Remain

September 20, 2020

Whether on trains or trams, in supermarkets or shopping malls — places where face masks are commonly worn in much of the world — Swedes go about their lives without them.

When most of Europe locked down their populations early in the pandemic by closing schools, restaurants, gyms and even borders, Swedes kept enjoying many freedoms.

The relatively low-key strategy captured the world’s attention, but at the same time it coincided with a per capita death rate that was much higher than in other Nordic countries.

Now, as infection numbers surge again in much of Europe, the country of 10 million people has some of the lowest numbers of new coronavirus cases — and only 14 virus patients in intensive care.

Whether Sweden’s strategy is succeeding, however, is still very uncertain.

Its health authorities, and in particular chief epidemiologist Dr. Anders Tegnell, keep repeating a familiar warning: It’s too early to tell, and all countries are in a different phase of the pandemic.

That has not stopped a World Health Organization Europe official from saying the continent could learn broader lessons from Sweden that could help the virus battle elsewhere.

“We must recognize that Sweden, at the moment, has avoided the increase that has been seen in some of the other countries in western Europe,” WHO Europe’s senior emergency officer, Catherine Smallwood, said Thursday. “I think there are lessons for that. We will be very keen on working and hearing more from the Swedish approach.”

According to the European Center for Disease Control, Sweden has reported 30.3 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days, compared with 292.2 in Spain, 172.1 in France, 61.8 in the U.K. and 69.2 in Denmark, all of which imposed strict lockdowns early in the pandemic.

Overall, Sweden has 88,237 reported infections and 5,864 fatalities from the virus, or 57.5 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants since the beginning of the crisis.

The way Sweden’s strategy was viewed outside the country seems to depend largely on what stage of the pandemic the observer was experiencing at the time. Initially, many abroad were incredulous at images of Swedes dining with friends in restaurants or sipping cocktails on the Stockholm waterfront. Some were envious that Swedish businesses were not forced to close.

Then came shock as the virus ripped through the country’s nursing homes and hospices.

By mid-April, more than 100 deaths were reported each day in Sweden, while mortality rates were falling elsewhere in Europe.

Today, as fears of a second wave grow across Europe, it’s fashionable to praise Sweden, with reporters from France, the U.K. and elsewhere traveling to Stockholm to ask about its success.

But a Swedish government commission investigating the handling of the pandemic will, undoubtedly, have hard questions to answer: Did authorities wait too long to limit access to nursing homes, where about half of the deaths occurred? Were they too slow to provide personal protective equipment to staff in those homes when shortcomings in the elderly care sector had long been known? Why did it take so long to set up wide-scale testing?

Tegnell also refuses to rule out a second wave of coronavirus infections in Sweden. A particular concern is the return of students to high schools for the first time since March.

“We need to be very careful and find the first sign that something is going on so that we can do as much as possible to prevent it from escalating,” he told The Associated Press.

Localized outbreaks are expected, but rather than fight them with nationwide rules, officials plan to use targeted actions based on testing, contact-tracing and isolating patients rapidly.

“It’s very important that we have quick and local response to hit down the virus without making restrictions for the whole country,” Health Minister Lena Hallengren said last week.

From the beginning, health officials argued that Sweden was pursuing a sustainable approach toward the virus that the population could adopt — for years, if necessary. “This is a marathon, not a sprint,” became a slogan repeated by ministers at every opportunity, given that neither a vaccine nor a cure yet exist.

While the rest of the world watched with envy at the freedoms that Swedes enjoyed amid lockdowns elsewhere, there were not as many as people have assumed. Gatherings were capped at 50, and congregating at bars was banned.

Most of the changes involved voluntary actions by citizens, rather than rules imposed by the government.

This trust given to the population to shoulder personal responsibility in the pandemic puts Sweden at odds with most other countries that used coercive measures such as fines to force compliance. https://www.voanews.com/covid-19-pandemic/sweden-spared-surge-virus-cases-many-questions-remain

While there may be a lot of questions, the reality is that Sweden did not harms its economy to the extent many other nations in the world did.

Furthermore, consider that although the USA has falsely prided itself as being “the land of the free,” this has not been the case related to COVID-19 since March of this year.

Instead, we keep hearing cries from the major media that the USA should further restrict freedom and choices and also (and much of this is for political purposes) imposed more repressive requirements earlier.

Here are some comments about Sweden and the US approach from last Spring:

April 17, 2020

Sometimes, the best thing to do, is to do nothing at all. Take Sweden, for example, where the government decided not to shut down the economy, but to take a more thoughtful and balanced approach. Sweden has kept its primary schools, restaurants, shops and gyms open for business even though fewer people are out in public or carrying on as they normally would. At the same time, the government has kept the Swedish people well-informed so they understand the risks the virus poses to their health and the health of others. This is how the Swedes have minimized their chances of getting the infection while avoiding more extreme measures like shelter-in-place which is de facto house arrest.

What the Swedish experiment demonstrates, is that there’s a way to navigate these unprecedented public health challenges without recklessly imposing police state policies and without doing irreparable harm to the economy. And, yes, the results of this experiment are not yet known, but what we do know is that most nations cannot simply print-up trillions of dollars to counter the knock-on effects of bringing the economy to a screeching halt. These countries must dip into their reserves or take out loans from the IMF in order to recover from the lack of production and activity. That means they’re going to face years of slow growth and high unemployment to dig out from the mess their leaders created for them.

And that rule applies to the US too, even though the government has been recklessly printing money to pay the bills. The unforeseen cost to the US will come in the form of long-term unemployment triggered by millions of failed small and mid-sized businesses. That grim scenario is all but certain now. …

That’s why we should look to countries like Sweden that have taken a more measured approach that allow parts of the economy to continue to function during the epidemic, so other parts can gear-up quickly and return to full capacity with minimal disruption. This should not be a “liberal vs conservative” issue as it’s become in the United States. One should not oppose restarting the economy just because Trump is ‘for it’, but because millions of working people are facing an uncertain future in an economy which– most economists believe– is headed for a severe and protracted recession. https://www.unz.com/mwhitney/sweden-is-right-the-economy-should-be-left-open/

As far as the US increasing government “recklessly printing money,” that type of action, according to biblical prophecies in Habakkuk 2:6-8, will ultimately end up in a much worse disaster for the US than COVID-19.

My own position on the lockdowns as a Ph.D. scientist who has been involved in infectious and viral research (the US National Institutes of Health has twice deemed that my nutritional herbal-glandular approach for inhibiting viral replication had ‘significant scientific merit’) including my interactions with public health experts, as well being a church leader, is that the steps various governmental agencies have taken have often ‘crossed the line.’ They were not truly based on real science, but on political considerations, incorrect modeling, atheism, and ignorance. Sweden’s approach, though not perfect, was more balanced from a scientific, freedom, and systems’ approach (perhaps I should mention that I also possess a Master’s degree in Systems Management from the University of Southern California).

As a nutritional scientist, I also remain disappointed that governments around the world, and the US specifically, have not used the novel coronavirus outbreak as an opportunity to remind people that they could improve their health and better support their immune systems if they ate at least two servings of fruit and three servings of vegetables each day. Only about one out of every eleven Americans does this, despite that it is official US government policy. Increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables tends to increase the consumption of food vitamin C (which is vastly superior to the ascorbic acid isolate that many stores sell as a supplement) which is good for lung tissue and immune system support.

While eating better does not stop the coronavirus, it would tend to lessen its negative health impacts.

Instead of focusing on ways to improve individual health, governmental policies have leaned more towards totalitarian steps. While lockdowns have ‘flattened the curve,’ as I wrote last Spring, that mainly means that there will be delays in how long this virus will run its course. There are pros and cons of that. But economically, we have seen a lot of cons.

Furthermore, government steps have also set a precedent that authoritarian moves should be considered necessary.

That will play into the hand of the coming 666 Beast power (e.g. watch Fourth Horseman, COVID, and the Rise of the Beast of Revelation, Cardinal: Coronavirus could be the end of the European Union, and COVID-19 Leading to 666?).

Some items of possibly related interest may include:

Biological Warfare and Prophecy. Is biological warfare possible? Was it prophesied? Scientists have long warned that pathogenic organisms like the coronavirus could be weaponized. Furthermore, back in 2017, there were concerns that the biological research facility being constructed in Wuhan, China was risky and that a coronavirus from it could be released. On January 25, 2020, China’s President Xi Jinping publicly stated that the situation with the Wuhan-related strain of the coronavirus was grave. Did Church of God writers like the late evangelist Raymond McNair warn that engineered viruses (the “Doomsday bug”) were consistent with prophecies from Jesus? Did a warning from CCOG leader Bob Thiel warn about risks of genetically-modified (GMO) mosquitoes come to pass? Could human research and/or the consumption of biblically-unclean animals such as bats and snakes be a factor in current outbreaks or coming future pestilences? What about famines? How devastating have pestilences been? How devastating are the prophesied ones going to be? Dr. Thiel addresses these issues and more in this video.
GMOs and Bible Prophecy What are GMOs? Since they were not in the food supply until 1994, how could they possibly relate to Bible prophecy? Do GMOs put the USA and others at risk? Here are some related videos: GMO Risks and the Bible and GMOs, Lab meat, Hydrogenation: Safe or Dangerous?

20 items to prophetically watch in 2020 Much is happening. Dr. Thiel points to 20 items to watch (cf. Mark 13:37) in this article. Here is a link to a related sermon: 20 Prophetic Items to Watch in 2020.
Brexit Happened: Now What? At 11:00 pm January 31, 2020, the United Kingdom formally left the European Union. Many celebrated, while many mourned. Nigel Farage stated, “This is the greatest moment in modern British history.” What will happen to the United Kingdom? Will the UK be involved in trade deals with the United States of America and the Europeans? Will the UK regret the BRitish Exit (Brexit) from the EU?What will happen with the European Union? Is Europe prophesied to have a great army and many ships? Does the Bible prophesy a reorganization of Europe? Does it prophesy that the Europeans will become a conquering military power? Is the United Kingdom prophesied to be conquered? How does the Bible name the British-descended peoples? Was the British Empire the largest in world history? Was Brexit predicted by Church of God leaders in 1970 and the early 1990s? Will the European Union be negatively affected financially by the departure of the UK? Will this turn out well for the UK or the Europeans? Dr. Thiel addresses these issues and more in this video.

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