An International Student’s Perspective on the Coronavirus…in ‘Utopian’ Sweden.
As an international student studying at KTH in Stockholm, one of the few countries deciding not to take drastic measures in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, my experience of what’s happening at the moment is certainly very different from what I expected it would be when news of China, Italy and Spain’s tragedies hit the headlines.
Recently, in an article about the Swedish experimental response to the coranvirus, Sweden was presented as the modern utopia, a country well-equipped naturally and prepared to deal with world-changing disasters such as this. Swedes are presented as selfless, digitally adaptive and responsive, and therefore in the best position to prevent this virus from spreading at an unmanageable rate for healthcare institutions without much change to daily life.
I shared this article with a few friends, also international students in Stockholm, and we all agreed that, in making sweeping statements about how Swedes are all used to spending time in isolation, this article brushes over the reality of the virus outbreak and does little to address what is really going on here.
As an international resident, I have been in conflict. At first, I was unsure whether I should have gone home a couple of weeks ago to spend this time in isolation amongst family. But I had to make the tough decision to stay here, both for positive and negative reasons. Positive because unlike most UK educational institutions, KTH has pretty seamlessly transferred all classes online, and the coursework nature of the majority of courses in my degree (Computer Science) has allowed for the workload to continue — plenty of projects and assignments to keep me busy over here, and I was worried that going home, I wouldn’t have been as productive in my cramped house (personal space is just NOT a thing for us). But negative because two of my family members are risk groups, and I was worried I might catch something whilst travelling (or already have something and been unaware) and transmit that to them.
To be honest, I feel extremely privileged that there has been little disruption to my education. Professors have all adapted their ordinary teaching styles to online teaching, and have been very accommodating in changing courses to suit different situations wherever possible. The digitally advanced society in Sweden and already-strong flexible working has also allowed many companies to easily allow employees to work from home with little disruption.
The general advice and rhetoric from the Swedish government is ‘Stay at home when you can’. Today, the government announced you must socially distance yourself, but yet gyms, restaurants, cafes, and schools for young children remain open. All companies and organisations must take the necessary measures to enforce this social distancing, which probably translates to gyms limiting the number of people allowed inside at a time rather than straight out closing. As law and law is introduced, these seem to be taken more as ‘guidelines’ rather than hard and fast rules you must obey.
I am in conflict because I am not sure whether I should leave the house or not. As a powerlifter, the gym is a huge part of my lifestyle and mental happiness, and currently is the only time I leave the house barring from going to the supermarket to replenish on food (is it just me or has anyone else’s jeans gotten tighter recently?). The government introduced a new law last week that restaurants, cafes and bars can only serve at tables, and in a bid to stay open and encourage business, a lot of pubs and bars are introducing more outdoor seating to encourage people to come out in small groups and sit separately from other groups. I don’t think personally I’ll be visiting a pub anytime soon, but this seems at total odds with what is currently going on in many other countries, including my own homeland, the UK. Should I stay at home and self-isolate fully, or should I just do my best where I can?
Part of the more relaxed response from Sweden than other countries, including Norway, Denmark and the UK, is that the government expects far fewer hospitalisations per 100,000. Many Swedes are also looking back at the 1918–19 Spanish flu in comparison. During the Spanish flu epidemic, the underdeveloped transport and communication systems helped slow the spread, and the two additional outbreaks that took place were attributed to not enough people initially being infected and achieving immunity to kill the outbreak within one wave. Now, the thinking is that with the higher level of interaction than the Spanish flu epidemic, herd immunity can be achieved (although the public health agency are not explicitly using this term). Hence, the lack of extensive mitigation strategies to stop people from being infected. The key is to achieve the right balance so that transport and public services and continue to run as usual.
Whether this strategy will pay off, only time will tell. But I do think this response is risky and in some areas, Sweden can learn from other countries. The government decided not to close down schools, out of fear that healthcare workers would have to stay at home to look after young children instead of go to work in hospitals. This makes sense to me, but the UK seems to have solved this with an alternative solution — close schools officially, but allow children from vulnerable situations or with parents who have to go to work for legitimate reasons to be come into school. The number of kids in contact with each other is much smaller, and healthcare workers can still do their job.
The BBC article argues that the Swedish lifestyle has also meant fewer behaviour changes have been needed to slow down the spread of the coronavirus to a more manageable rate — more than 50% of Swedes live alone, many Swedes are used to staying inside due to the cold, harsh winters, and the importance of personal space means that Swedes already naturally separate in public transport and other public spaces, and are rarely inclined to talk to strangers. But I think this overgeneralises a fair bit, not all Swedes are like this, and it also neglects to consider the high number of internationals living in Stockholm and other big cities in Sweden for whom these social practices might not be norms yet.
Swedes generally are known for their high level of English, and as a consequence many non-natives migrate and are able to integrate fairly well into society without having a good level of Swedish. But lately, this has come under scrutiny as quite a high proportion of deaths so far from the virus has been within the Somali-immigrant community, for whom perhaps the news hasn’t been as accessible. Out of concern that a significant percentage of international residents here might not be in tune to the latest guidelines and news regarding the virus due to the language barrier, SVT, the national television broadcaster and major news provider here, started providing Arabic and English subtitles for internationals in their major virus news update. The hope is that this will help internationals keep up to date with new guidelines and laws being introduced in an ongoing fashion.
Mental health and the longevity of enforcing quarantine have also been major issues at stake for the government. They are considering the long-term and whether such a quarantine would actually help flatten the curve in the long run. The logic generally goes like this (and is fairly similar to that adopted by the UK until about a week ago): after people come out of quarantine, they’ll rush out to public spaces and hang out in groups again, and the small number of cases of the virus that still exist will spread again and, potentially cause a huge influx of infected people again since the majority of people wouldn’t have contracted the disease yet and developed immunity. Whether it is possible to be infected twice from COVID-19, is another can of worms though and is a major flaw in the Swedish government’s relaxed response.
The incoming beautiful Spring weather has also been a catapult for more Swedes to start going outside and enjoying the much-needed sun. After a winter of hardly seeing much sunlight (granted, I am told that this winter was less harsh than previous years but STILL), all we naturally want to do is go outside and enjoy the beautiful weather outdoors. Swedes are very outdoorsy people, and I am told are much more extroverted and social in the summer. This I am yet to confirm since I haven’t experienced a full summer here yet. But as soon as the sun was out, the streets became much more busier than they had been a few weeks ago when the seriousness of the virus started hitting the world. And T-Centralen (the busiest, central station in Stockholm) was almost as busy as it usually would have been under normal circumstances yesterday.
So how is Sweden any different from London before quarantine was enforced? I saw the pictures of people out crowding parks to enjoy the sun. Swedes here are doing the exact same thing, irrespective of how socially equipped they might be to handle isolation. At the end of the day, humans are for the most part social creatures. We crave and need social interaction, and will take selfish risks despite knowledge of the consequences. Take me continuing to go to the gym, for example.
And for herd immunity to work, the government need enough social contact to continue to achieve the required 60% infection threshold. Hence cafes, bars, restaurants stay open. Gyms stay open for now — in fact the major gym chain SATS reopened on 27/03. Up until today, gatherings of under 50 people were still allowed (it is unclear to me now whether, under the new law, we can meet in groups of 50 as long as we maintain a 1m distance). More restrictions seem to be being introduced, but still at a far slower pace than neighbouring European countries. Sweden’s softer approach will either be hailed for centuries to come, or used as a cautionary example in future history lessons.
