Sweden decided not to close down its economy. It took a bet that its population would quickly develop “herd immunity,” so it allowed life to proceed without restricting gatherings or requiring quarantines and social distancing.
In other words, the Swedes acted from the start as many governors are acting now. Don’t worry about the pandemic. Life goes on as usual.
G.F. Brandenburg reports on how that worked out.
The short answer: Not well.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Denmark, Finland and Norway also decided to close their borders to Sweden due to the dramatically different policy that Sweden chose in response to the pandemic.
They did open their schools though, in Denmark and Norway and Switzerland.
I still think public schools have to open in the fall. Distance learning is a disaster. I was never a fan but now that I’ve seen it in action it’s worse than even I imagined and my district put a lot of effort into it.
Let’s do whatever we need to do to get them back in school. They want to go back and parents want them back in school.
So I have to go into quarantine this fall, where I only will see students, and no other adults, and not my own family, because schools “have to open up.” My family is all asthmatic. I am not.
It’s going to royally suck for me, but I truly worry about the various cancer survivors/immunocompromised/older teachers at the school in which I teach.
What do you think should be done for them? Parents can keep kids at home, but we staff members don’t have that option.
This is just not right. At a minimum they should pay for your extra expenses and provide a monthly service bonus that’s not just a token gesture. And you are completely correct about the ones you worry about. This is surreal. Please keep a diary. It will help you and it might be an important piece of history.
Is this a done deal in your state, TOW? I keep hearing proposed guidelines kicked around in NY/ NJ that older &/or immune-compromised teachers would be allowed to teach remotely. Having your other 3 family members asthmatic should fit under such an umbrella as only alternative is to quarantine yourself from them! But it sounds like there will be no “umbrella” where you are?
It’s Utah. I’m hoping that at least those who are immunocompromised in my school are actually allowed to work from home. We have no union with any power and a state that has never cared about teachers. I’m not holding my breath, frankly.
And NO WAY teachers will get any kind of stipend. Teaching is a “calling,” dontcha know? (sarcasm in that last sentence)
Just as an area for discussion, we have a lot of manufacturing where I live and those companies are turning to engineering and building modifications to mitigate some of the risk to workers. One thing almost all of them are doing is improving ventilation – they use existing HVAC systems and modify them to improve air flow. We could do that in public schools, and if we’re actually committed to education (and not just committed to scolding public schools) we can DO THINGS to help them open safely.
I’m in an 850 square foot metal “portable classroom.” The air I will have to breathe will circulate on its own, with maybe a little air coming in from outside. I will have to breathe this all day. That’s why I’m going to have to self quarantine. And my school’s building–55 years old with no air conditioning and tiny windows for some classrooms and no windows for most classrooms, is even worse.
Sorry, I meant to respond to Chiara. I can’t imagine how improving ventilation is schools is going to get done. We’re not committed to education. Reading this blog everyday shows me that.
The experiment isn’t over, unless you think the pandemic is. I’ve said this before – we won’t know how anything “turned out” for at least a year or more. As other countries open up, there might be further spikes and maybe their death rates will eventually surpass Sweden’s, while Sweden enjoys its herd immunity and doesn’t experience further spikes. Maybe not. Who knows? The point is, none of us do. There’s a reason the coronavirus is referred to as “novel”.
It won’t get done.
Hey. I know. Why don’t we experiment on the nation’s children!!!!
The same post will be written in the late fall about those who did and did not reopen their schools.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31304-0/fulltext
The rate of infection was the same for kids 10-18 as for adults.
Reposted. Very important. Thank you, Mr. Brandenburg.
And the award for understatement of the year goes to…Diane Ravitch for her closing comment, “Not well.” Now come up and receive your award! 🤩
LOL. Yes.
I haven’t verified it, but I read that in Sweden, privatized education is so inequitable that parents apply for private schools the exact minute children are born. How did that extremist Swedish experiment in austerity, privatization and deregulation turn out? Like the extremist Swedish COVID-19 Experiment, it looked like it was working for a while, but it unraveled because unmitigated pursuit of capital had underlying qualities that proved unstable and unsustainable. Deregulation, whether during a pandemic or not, is like the cheap chair you assemble from Swedish retailer IKEA. It looks like you can rest easy on it for a while, but one day, the bottom falls out.
Independent Evaluations of the privatized education system in Sweden have found that privatization does not improve academic performance (test scores) and increases inequity.
Have Swedish children died? What about their parents/siblings? Contact Tracing?
LA County’s population is also about 10 Million – they have more cases but less deaths. The county had lockdowns, closed schools, businesses, government offices and public gatherings. Masks and social distancing are required.
In Europe and the United States, about half the deaths occur in nursing home facilities.
What do nursing home facilities rates of infection and fatalities have in common? Who is looking there? The bat narrative is no longer plausible IMHO.
The medical industry regularly reviews drug/drug interaction, drug/food interaction, and drug/therapeutic interaction. If I remember correctly, this began in the 70’s and soon after new medications for all sorts of ailments began rolling out of factories. Are there independent ongoing studies exploring reasons why and how this virus targeted this population?