Sweden's Responses to COVID-19
Carl Dahlström, Johannes Lindvall · 2024
In this chapter, Dahlström and Lindvall examine Sweden’s public health policies in the 12-month period between January 2020, when Swedish authorities took the first steps to prepare the country for the new epidemic, and December 2020, when Sweden found itself in the middle of the epidemic’s second wave and new, more restrictive policies were being prepared and enacted. The chapter aims to uncover why Sweden adopted public health policies that were markedly different from those of most other Western European states. It begins with a brief overview of the spread of COVID-19 within Sweden. It then describes the public health policies Sweden put in place during the COVID-19 crisis in 2020 before turning to an analysis of the social and political factors that explain Sweden’s distinctive approach to public health policy during the pandemic. Dahlström and Lindvall reject a few common interpretations of Sweden’s distinctive policies. Their analysis emphasizes continuity, not change, and suggests that long-standing views within the public-health community were allowed to prevail due to the autonomy Swedish civil servants typically enjoy as long as they act within their remits.