Just another Spring day in Sweden

The Swedish model is getting a lot of buzz these days, and I don't mean Elsa Hosk. Unlike most of the Europe. Sweden chose to pretty much go on with things as normal, believing they would lick this nasty virus with "herd immunity." According to Hans Bergstrom, it isn't working, but that's not stopping the state epidemiologist from declaring victory, largely because he is under the impression Swedes believe they don't need a government imposed lockdown to stay safe.

The numbers don't match with the view, however. Sweden has far more deaths per capita than its Scandinavian and Baltic neighbors, and its numbers are spiking, not plateauing as state health officials claim. But, don't tell American conservative bloggers. They love the Swedish model because it fits with their belief that lockdowns produce no better results.

The interesting thing about the state's leading epidemiologist is he didn't even factor asymptomatic carriers when he suggested this approach to the government. It is highly doubtful the country has developed any special immunity. They simply haven't done enough testing to determine who the carriers are and what impact they have on the population as a whole.

When you look at Stockholm's numbers, they are not faring any better than other hard-hit metropolitan centers around the world. The death toll per capita is comparable to that of New York. Worse, it has a staggering 11 percent mortality rate, if its case numbers are correct! That's pretty grim for a country that prides itself on its national health care system.

Sweden has been forced to take a number of restrictive measures like limiting the size of gatherings and quarantining nursing homes due to surging numbers. However, the government has kept most schools open, which greatly worries parents. This hit and miss approach is what led to a huge spike in reported cases and deaths in Britain, which had initially championed the herd immunity theory before finally imposing a lockdown. For the better part of a week, PM Boris Johnson's life seemed to be hanging on a thread. Unfortunately by this point the damage was done, and that may well be the case for Sweden too.

There is no way to escape this virus. The hope is that by restricting public gatherings and trying to keep people more or less contained, the contagion can be spread out over a longer period of time and not cause undo stress on the health care system. This will give epidemiologists more time to come up with effective treatments, adequate testing and eventually a vaccine for the virus.

These lockdowns do create a certain degree of hardships, especially among those who have lost their jobs, but Sweden should be prepared for this, as the country has the financial reserves to compensate its citizens. It just seems that greed has won out with the government determined to weather this storm no matter how high the death toll.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Welcome to this month's reading group selection. David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908. At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades. Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society. I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran. Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, noting the gro

Dylan in America

Whoever it was in 1969 who named the very first Bob Dylan bootleg album “Great White Wonder” may have had a mischievous streak. There are any number of ways you can interpret the title — most boringly, the cover was blank, like the Beatles’ “White Album” — but I like to see a sly allusion to “Moby-Dick.” In the seven years since the release of his first commercial record, Dylan had become the white whale of 20th-century popular song, a wild, unconquerable and often baffling force of musical nature who drove fans and critics Ahab-mad in their efforts to spear him, lash him to the hull and render him merely comprehensible. --- Bruce Handy, NYTimes ____________________________________________ I figured we can start fresh with Bob Dylan. Couldn't resist this photo of him striking a Woody Guthrie pose. Looks like only yesterday. Here is a link to the comments building up to this reading group.

Team of Rivals Reading Group

''Team of Rivals" is also an America ''coming-of-age" saga. Lincoln, Seward, Chase et al. are sketched as being part of a ''restless generation," born when Founding Fathers occupied the White House and the Louisiana Purchase netted nearly 530 million new acres to be explored. The Western Expansion motto of this burgeoning generation, in fact, was cleverly captured in two lines of Stephen Vincent Benet's verse: ''The stream uncrossed, the promise still untried / The metal sleeping in the mountainside." None of the protagonists in ''Team of Rivals" hailed from the Deep South or Great Plains. _______________________________ From a review by Douglas Brinkley, 2005

Dispatches from Vilnius

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