Not sure about the credentials of the National Review, but here is their take on how Sweden is doing:
Lots of people are rushing to discredit Sweden’s approach, which relies more on calibrated precautions and isolating only the most vulnerable than on imposing a full lockdown. While gatherings of more than 50 people are prohibited and high schools and colleges are closed, Sweden has kept its borders open as well as its preschools, grade schools, bars, restaurants, parks, and shops.
President Trump has no use for Sweden’s nuanced approach. Last Wednesday, he smeared it in a spectacular fashion by saying he’d heard that Sweden “gave it a shot, and they saw things that were really frightening, and they went immediately to shutting down the country.” He and the public-health experts who told him this were wrong on both counts and would do better to question their approach. Johan Giesecke, Sweden’s former chief epidemiologist and now adviser to the Swedish Health Agency, says that other nations “have taken political, unconsidered actions” that are not justified by the facts.
In the rush to lock down nations and, as a result, crater their economies, no one has addressed this simple yet critical question: How do we know social-isolation controls actually work? And even if they do work for some infectious epidemics, do they work for COVID-19? And even if they work for this novel coronavirus, do they have to be implemented by a certain point in the epidemic? Or are they locking down the barn door after the horses are long gone?
In theory, less physical interaction might slow the rate of new infections. But without a good understanding of how long COVID-19 viral particles survive in air, in water, and on contact surfaces, even that is speculative. Without reliable information on what proportion of the population has already been exposed and successfully fought off the coronavirus, it’s worth questioning the value of social-isolation controls. It is possible that the fastest and safest way to “flatten the curve” is to allow young people to mix normally while requiring only the frail and sick to remain isolated.
This is, in fact, the first time we have quarantined healthy people rather than quarantining the sick and vulnerable. As Fredrik Erixon, the director of the European Centre for International Political Economy in Brussels, wrote in The Spectator (U.K.) last week: “The theory of lockdown, after all, is pretty niche, deeply illiberal — and, until now, untested. It’s not Sweden that’s conducting a mass experiment. It’s everyone else.”
https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/04/ ... omic-ruin/
Just want to add that I think many foreigners also misunderstand the Swedish approach. We do not have a lot of bans, except the no visits to homes for the elderly and no buffets at restaurant, (in fact, restaurants are only allowed to serve customers seated at tables, or sell takeout) but there are lots of recommendations.
There is a cultural context here; Swedes trust the government, and typically follow official recommendations.
Pretty much everyone I know, except those working in health care, are working from home. People avoid travelling. Stores are open, but you are supposed to stay 1.5 metres away from other customers, and our local store has yellow and black tape stripes 1.5 metres apart throughout all aisles to facilitate this distancing, and the cashier is wearing latex gloves and sits behind a plexi glass shield.
Restaurants have lost nearly all business. Sure, on a sunny day you can spot people sitting at an outdoor café, but all restaurant owners I've talked to (trying to eat more takeout now, to support them) have lost 70-80% of their business. Hotels in Stockholm typically have 90-100% occupancy during weekdays, and now they average 5%.
SAS and BRA have shut down all domestic flights, since there are too few passengers, except a few routes that the government demands have to be in service at least once a day, and which they pay to keep open.
No sports leagues are operating, albeit the Public Health Agency has asked that youth teams should continue to practice, but not play tournaments.
It's not business as usual, it's just that we're following recommendations rather than being forced to adher to rules.
We're not under lockdown, but we're still sitting at home. Yet if we feel for it, we can go for a walk, just remember to stay 1.5 metres away from other people. Which is easy. Sweden is sparsely populated.
I think a lot of the foreign media think that if we're not in a lockdown, we're not doing anything. But we are.