Coronavirus is definitely making a major impact in Swedish life the last month or so. I have been cooped up in my apartment now for two weeks, working for NuvoAir, then working on this blog, playing guitar, and attempting to maintain a workout routine.
As of today, the government recommendation in Sweden is to socially distance and avoid groups greater than 50 - an unusually low restriction compared to the rest of Europe.
The reasoning behind this is explained pretty well in this article.
Sweden's government approach seems to be that locking down the country may cause more chaos than is needed.
But he [Swedish prime minister, Stefan Löfven] defended the decision not to implement the tighter restrictions seen in Denmark, France and the UK. “We all, as individuals, have to take responsibility. We can’t legislate and ban everything,” he said. “It is also a question of commonsense behaviour.”
That said, all my friends that can are self-isolating and it is really putting a strain on a lot of us mentally. At least four of my friends have lost their jobs here in Sweden or have had massive temporary pay reduction. One friend had to go back to New Zealand. It was unthinkable that this was going to spread so far and so quickly by this time.
I am unbelievably thankful that my job at NuvoAir is in respiratory health. We have lots of requests coming in specifically to provide our product as a followup tool for patients recovering from Coronavirus. It looks like our jobs are probably safe, and in the meantime we can provide a useful tool that can really help a lot of people.
If you have not seen it yet, I highly recommend watching the following video with Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.