Yesterday was a FOUR Green Arrow Day.

Sweden vs. USA Revisited
Next Newsletter – August 10, 2020

Good Morning,

Yesterday was a FOUR Green Arrow day, the particulars are listed below.

The United States and Sweden have used two strikingly different strategies to cope with COVID 19. The US has relied on active government controls and restrictions, albeit at the statehouse level compared to Sweden, which has counted on its citizens to self-restrict themselves and avoided any lock-down or country-wide edicts.

How do the strategies compare? The table below shows the statistics as of August 3, 2020. As of that date, Sweden’s infection rate is 54.6% of the US, or a little over half of the cases we have here stateside. However, their fatality rate is 18.3% higher than in our country. That said, Sweden does have an older population; they have 29.2% more people over the age of 65 than here. Adjusting for the population difference (as if the US had the same percentage of 65+ as Sweden), the US fatalities per million would be 8.4% higher.

Does Sweden compare well with other European countries? The United Kingdom, Belgium, Spain, and Italy all would compare unfavorably. 

What did Sweden do well in particular? They protected their most vulnerable citizens.

Their economy and society stayed open.