Meanwhile, in Sweden, the government is now implementing mandatory restrictions to fight Covid-19

The country has begun to implement mandatory restrictions to slow the spread of the virus:

After a surge in Covid-19 infections led to rising hospitalizations and deaths, Sweden has abandoned its attempt—unique among Western nations—to combat the pandemic through voluntary measures alone @WSJ https://t.co/ygFQyL3vvI

— Bojan Pancevski (@bopanc) December 6, 2020

According to the WSJ, infections are “growing exponentially”:

With to­tal Covid-19-re­lated deaths reach­ing al­most 700 per mil­lion in­hab­i­tants, in­fec­tions grow­ing ex­po­nen-tially and hos­pi­tal wards fill­ing up, the gov­ern­ment had to shift https://t.co/aCHMe79Bt4

— Bojan Pancevski (@bopanc) December 6, 2020

Sweden has a much higher death count than its neighbors:

Last week Swe­den’s to­tal coro­n­avirus death count crossed 7,000. Neigh­bor­ing Den­mark, Fin­land and Nor­way, all sim­i­lar-sized coun­tries, have recorded since the start of the pan­demic 878, 415 and 354 deaths re­spec­tively https://t.co/F7v0yXnfTo

— Bojan Pancevski (@bopanc) December 6, 2020

The government had hoped to avoid lockdowns. . .

Teg­nell said lock­downs were unsustainable and un­nec­es­sary, dis­cour­aging mask-wear­ing as the Eu­ropean Cen­ter for Dis­ease Pre­ven­tion and Con­trol, a #EU agency whose head­quar­ters are lo­cated near his office, rec­om­mends wear­ing them https://t.co/Tq9PkbOufd

— Bojan Pancevski (@bopanc) December 6, 2020

. . .and that they could ease into herd immunity:

Teg­nell pre­dicted that Swedes would grad­u­ally build im­mu­nity to the virus through con­trolled ex­po­sure, that vac­cines would take longer than ex­pected to de­velop, and that death rates across the West would con­verge. https://t.co/YaAXPb3IcK

— Bojan Pancevski (@bopanc) December 6, 2020

But now they’re switching course:

In­stead, a coro­n­avirus vac­cine was au­tho­rized last week, Swe­den’s death rate re­mains an out­lier among its neigh­bors, and Teg­nell ac­knowl­edged in late No­vember that the new surge in in­fec­tions showed there was “no sign” of herd im­mu­nity https://t.co/YaAXPb3IcK

— Bojan Pancevski (@bopanc) December 6, 2020

Also, the voluntary lockdowns that kept the country open did not translate into a better economy:

Swe­den’s lais­sez-faire pan­demic strat­egy has failed to de­liver the eco­nomic ben­e­fits its pro­po­nents had pre­dicted. In the first half of the year, GDP fell by 8.5% and un­em­ploy­ment is pro­jected to rise to nearly 10% in the be­gin­ning of 2021 https://t.co/gvh9DnGulK

— Bojan Pancevski (@bopanc) December 6, 2020

Sweden vs. its neighbors:

Despite the lack of lockdown, Sweden’s economic performance has not been better than that if it’s neighbors https://t.co/Qp71BkNUgA pic.twitter.com/1t0h7pVuTJ

— Bojan Pancevski (@bopanc) December 6, 2020

Anders Tegnell, the Swedish version of Anthony Fauci, remains popular in the country:

Anders Tegnell, the face of Sweden’s pandemic management, remains hugely popular, despite his wrong predictions & opposition to masks. People have tattooed his visage, made it into Christmas decorations, and baked life-sized gingerbread cakes in his image https://t.co/NcNb5CahU7 pic.twitter.com/b0RRsdoiwz

— Bojan Pancevski (@bopanc) December 6, 2020

Stil no mask mandate, though:

😷 Despite the high infection and mortality rates, Sweden is refusing to mandate masks. EU’s, @ECDC_EU (based in Stockholm!) is recommending masks, as do the @CDCgov in the US, the @WHO and Sweden’s own @vetenskapsakad that awards the Nobel Prize https://t.co/eH6ezqCwno

— Bojan Pancevski (@bopanc) December 6, 2020

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