The epidemiologist behind Sweden’s controversial coronavirus strategy
One thing is missing from this discussion that needs to be understood: the Swedish government and related agencies generally <i>do not do things based on common sense</i>.<p>This may sound ridiculous, but in most cases, it's not. Common sense is wrong so often. The view of the Swedish government is that they are not more intelligent than the citizens. Unless things can be scientifically proved, the individual rights of citizens should not be restricted.<p>This permeates a lot of public policy in Sweden; I recently had reason to investigate to what extent maternal/neonatal care followed the best of our scientific knowledge and it was extremely close. If you think that's a given, think again. Many countries base their maternal/neonatal care on common sense and old wives' tales instead.<p>Both approaches are valid, but they are different. With policy based on common sense, you accept that you occasionally (often?) force something wrong on the public, potentially against their better knowledge. With policy based on strong evidence, you are more rarely wrong, but you also get way fewer opportunities to force things on the public, simply because there are so few things we truly know to be true. Doubly so during a novel pandemic.