Europe’s leaders rated on their coronavirus response

 Sweden. Who would believe this? By any objective measure, the country, long regarded by progressives as the gold standard of governance, dropped the ball on COVID-19. Prime Minister Stefan Löfven effectively handed responsibility for the government response to Sweden’s guru-like chief epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, who opposes masks and argued against closing schools, shops or restaurants. For Tegnell, lockdowns are “using a hammer to kill a fly.” 

Tegnell insists that he was not “definitely not” pursuing a “herd immunity” strategy to build up immunity to the virus in the population, although a batch of emails exchanged with a colleague in Finland that were obtained by a Swedish journalist rather suggest he was. Whatever the plan, it has so far resulted in more than 100,000 infections and a case fatality ratio (the proportion of those infected who die) of 5.8 percent, on par with Sudan’s. The rate in neighboring Norway is just 1.7 percent

Sweden is still a model – at least among adherents of the corona-denying fringe. If Löfven, a Social Democrat, is having second thoughts, he’s not betraying them. For now, he’s sticking to his motto: hålla i och hålla ut (“keep battling on”).

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