> I don't hate Sweden, I actually quite like the place. I just don't like the way the "government" handles things at the moment, including their handling - or rather lack of handling - of the oncoming epidemic.
That would be a fair position if you could tell us how you would do it better. Preferably your proposals should be based on research. I imagine being an epidemologist and constantly having people questioning your expertise is not dissimilar to being a software developer and having people constantly doing the same to you. Frustrating, in other words.
> Your statement on Swedish health care being "very accessible and free" is easily countered by the fact that the waiting times are notoriously long and getting longer while the amount of provincial tax money spent per capita is more than double the amount spent by neighbouring Finland which manages to avoid some of these problems.
Corona testing would be executed by primary caregivers for which waiting times are short. See https://www.vantetider.se/ The stats say that 80% of patients have to wait less than three days for a doctor's appointment.
Tax rates are a very broad discussion and in my opinion not relevant here.
> Those long waiting times have led to a large increase in the number of people who take out private health insurance to make sure they can actually get the treatment they need instead of having to wait for half a year or more.
6% of the population has a private health insurance. Such insurance can reduce waiting times to specialist care but not primary care.
> Those fatality rates you quote are based on the assumption that the reported case incidence is correct which is very likely not the case.
True. My point is that, all else being equal, the better the healthcare the lower the mortality rate should be. E.g Germany has 3062 cases but only 5 fatalities meaning that the disease is probably somewhat contained. The US has 2345 cases and 50 fatalities meaning the opposite.
> By the way, I'm not a Swede. I am a Dutchman living in Sweden with a Swedish-French wife and two Dutch-Swedish-French children.
I apologize for jumping to conclusions.