Bolsonaro’s role model, Sweden admits failed policy led to deaths

Swedes have been told to maintain social distancing but there has been no lockdown. Photo: Daniele Cossu/Shutterstock

Swedish infectious diseases expert Anders Tagnell, the man behind his country’s Covid-19 no-lockdown strategy, admitted this week that his country’s approach has “absolutely” failed to save many lives. “There is quite obviously a potential for improvement in what we have done,” he told a local public radio station. As of Tuesday, Sweden had reported 446 deaths per 1 million people — nearly four times that of neighboring Denmark, one of the first European nations to go into lockdown.

Despite the clear failure of the Swedish model, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has referred to the Scandinavian country as an example to be followed. Though Sweden has nearly three times more Covid-19 deaths per million than Brazil, with the rapid spread of the coronavirus in the country and the levels of underreporting, Brazil could soon become South America’s equivalent.

Last week, The Brazilian Report editor-in-chief Gustavo Ribeiro explained that the realities of Brazil and Sweden could not be more different, and the impact of a vertical social isolation approach could be even more devastating for Brazil, which has a much more deficient healthcare system than its European counterpart.

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