(Image: AAP/Mick Tsikas)

In the latest edition of Your Say, Crikey readers are fired up over James Baillieu’s recent article in which he argued Australia should take a leaf out of Sweden’s COVID playbook. But even the most passionate defenders of lockdowns and border closures concede we might be able to learn something from our Scandinavian friends when it comes to rolling out the vaccine…

On whether Australia should follow Sweden’s lead on COVID

Dechlan Brennan writes: I found James Baillieu’s article to be hyperbole and fear mongering, things he ironically detests.

Sweden certainly went a different way in response to the pandemic, and at last count has suffered more than 14,000 deaths — this for a country with half Australia’s population and with a strong healthcare system that is reliably funded by taxation. 

Australia’s lockdowns have been harsh, and detrimental to many people’s mental health, but our death count is nowhere near that of Sweden. 

Ending lockdowns and mandating “freedom day” as done the UK will not happen — and for good reason. In Israel the high overall vaccination rate hid the low rate in the Gaza Strip and the ultra-Orthodox community. Australia’s Indigenous community would be at huge risk from the deadly Delta variant, with far less access to healthcare than countries like Sweden if we “let it rip”. 

Freedoms will come back, and not a moment too soon for many. But irresponsible fear mongering in saying that we must measure deaths against what is good for the country (read economy) is not the answer. 

Carol Ey writes: It seems both Baillieu and Adam Schwab have drunk the Swedish Kool Aid in their desire to “let it rip” in Australia. It is also significant that they sing Sweden’s economic praises without actually quoting figures.

Comparing the outcome in Sweden with the UK and the US does suggest relative success, but a comparison with its Scandinavian neighbours provides a very different story. The per capita death toll from COVID in Denmark was about a third of Sweden’s, and Norway’s was nearly 10 times lower. And both of those (and Australia) have had better economic outcomes.

Where Australia could learn from Sweden is in relation to its vaccine rollout. Australia has about 36% of its adult population fully vaccinated, Sweden has reached over 60%, and more than 10% of the Swedish population has recovered from COVID, providing another layer of immunity.

Carolyn Fuller writes: I listened to a webinar with Swedish epidemiologist Dr Anders Tegnell in April 2020. He was very engaging and convincing, but he also said we won’t know for at least two years whether he was right or wrong.

Being a bit of a Swedophile, I regularly look at the COVID statistics for Sweden and Australia and I was therefore interested in Baillieu’s opinion piece. He certainly makes it sound like Sweden has done everything right and Australia everything wrong. But some basic statistics from Google this morning show, roughly, that Sweden’s population is 40% that of Australia and its COVID cases are nearly 20 times higher. Similarly, the number of deaths in Sweden is nearly 15 times that of Australia.

Had we done as Sweden did, I doubt Australians would be very accepting of 3 million cases and more than 36,000 deaths. Would our hospital systems have coped with 3 million cases? How many of those would have become long-COVID sufferers, and what would be the future cost to our healthcare system?

Certainly we may not have done everything right, but I doubt Sweden has either. Except, maybe, for vaccines. With 57% of its population fully vaccinated and 67% with at least one dose, it is way ahead of our bumbling stroll-out. 

Victoria Heffernan writes: I could not agree more with Baillieu. I also have a connection to Sweden — my daughter and three grandchildren live in Stockholm — and I am very relieved they aren’t here.

My grandchildren have all continued at school and preschool, have not been made fearful, and have enjoyed their after-school activities and sports. The family has just returned from a summer holiday in Spain where everyone was out and about enjoying life. The children were very excited about wearing masks on the plane — they hadn’t seen masks before.

Meanwhile my other daughter who lives in regional NSW has had to close her cafe/lunch service, has received very little compensation, and is very fearful that when she can eventually reopen many people will be frightened to venture out. And many workplaces may not return to full capacity. She will also have to repay rent deferral no matter how her business goes in the future.

On how COVID could change the way we teach our kids

Julienne Leathart writes: I am a former primary school teacher from the NSW public school system (quite some time ago now) mainly in a disadvantaged inner city school — the last two years teaching the school’s kindergarten class.

One of my major frustrations was that the school year started in February, the hottest month. My students would start first term eager and keen to learn but by the afternoon of the first 32+ degree day they were over it. This applied to all grades but try teaching a class of 28 four- to-five-year-olds after they’d spent their lunch break lying in the sandstone bubbler troughs trying to get cool.

We lose so much student motivation and achievement — and climate change is going to make this worse.

COVID could be a circuit-breaker whereby we could rejig timing so the school year starts in autumn. The hottest term would then be term four, much of which is given over to end-of-year concerts, picnics and plays. Swimming carnivals could also take place then rather than at the beginning of the school year.

I realise this would require adaptation by many businesses — not least the tourism sector — but the benefits would outweigh the difficulties.

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