Swedes Are NOT Afraid. Data analysis shows: Swedes are in higher spirits than other nationalities.

Sweden has become infamous over the past few months for our country’s strategy to fight the Coronavirus. Sweden is aiming to create immunity among the population by slowly infecting the young and strong in the most controlled manner as possible, and insisting quarantine for only those in risk groups. There are many upsides. No lockdown means more people in a job and consequently an economy that takes less of a hit. A recent data analysis study shows that this strategy has also given Swedes a better psychological advantage. Hope is higher here and the viking population are less afraid than other nationalities. In fact Swedes are more hopeful as a whole about the future compared to the populations of other countries. 

The Swedish society is up and running there is no lockdown. Restaurants and shops are open and you are free to walk the streets. Sure, there are much fewer people in the restaurants and there are strict regulations on social distancing. The thing is we Swedes are fairly good at taking orders, and naturally bend to a more antisocial behaviour anyway! So what might seem impossible in other countries, seems to be working here. 

The plan is to create herd immunity. What that means is that the viking king, our Prime Minister, Mr Stefan Löfven, plans to infect the young and strong and counterintuitively protect the members of the population not in a risk zone by exposing them to the virus. 

The government has admitted that they have failed in protecting the elderly homes. The increase of deaths we have in Sweden are mostly from the elderly and that is naturally awful. But the remaining population seems to be doing okay. Now we are even closing down some of the emergency army hospitals that were set up because our intensive care facilities are not full. 

Many of our friends that have battled through the virus have horror stories of near death experiences and death anxiety but they live and are now resistant to the virus. Even more of our friends have had the virus in mild forms. Why then do we choose to expose ourselves to this horrible virus?

Well it’s rather simple, since it’s a global pandemic the virus will not die out. The coronavirus will stick around indefinitely and there will be new waves of attack when the whole world is hit again, most likely to occur this fall. By then a large part of the swedish population will be immune and hospitals will not be overwhelmed and our society will manage to face that wave and keep businesses operating and peoples’ education on track.  

A complete lockdown is only a good strategy if there is a solution around the corner. Like a vaccine. But there’s not! We will see a vaccine but that will be at the earliest 2021 and that is too far off. 

So here we are living our life pretty much like before. We keep in our 2 meter safety zones from others. We all work from home but shop like before and with the spring sun shining down on us we can enjoy a cold beer on an outdoor service with tables far apart at a restaurant. This seems to be great for our psychological well being. 

A data analysis study by AI company My Telescope now shows that the Swedish fear of losing your job or facing an economic collapse is felt much less here than in Britain. The only nation coming close to handling this as well are our next door neighbours, the Finns! 

According to the study they show a strong readiness in the face of the pandemic. That seems to come from the fact that they carry a certainty over generations that their russian neighbours will attack. Being positioned next to Russia and having struggled hard in World War II, the Finns have readied themselves for a war of some kind. They have told their young that they should be ready to fight ever since 1946. Therefore when a different kind of attack came, in the form of a virus, the Finnish population took comfort in the fact that their food and medical reserves were in good shape. The Finns have kept their society organised and ready for this and their people know it. Therefore they were more equipped to cope with the pandemic than others and the statistics show that their view on the future economy is that this too shall pass. Much like the Swedes attitude but for different reasons. 

Other countries cannot ready themselves like the Finns have but they can copy the Swedish approach and restore a psychological wellbeing by going for herd immunity. It is time for the world to go Viking on this virus. Battle on, battle through!