#CoronavirusUK & Sweden

The UK as the rest of the world are dealing with the corona virus pandemic.

Our government have a strategy based on scientific evaluation and advice. That advice of course is being moderated to respond to circumstantial changes as they emerge.

Initially the people were fully prepared to listen to this advice but gradually there has emerged a band of armchair experts - led by media mischief making.

Almost daily the media hacks grill the experts at the daily briefing - implying we must have it wrong because other countries are doing it differently and quite often - must be doing a better job of it as a result.

The UK experts (CSO & CMO) always say the same thing - EVERY COUNTRY IS DIFFERENT - OUR STRATEGY IS TAILORED FOR OUR SPECIFIC CIRCUMSTANCES AS A NATION.

To the majority of us this makes complete sense. However some will not accept it. They have no faith in our country.

Just to illustrate the point SWEDEN is regularly referred to. They are not locking down like us. Why are we locking down? We must have it wrong because the Swedes know what they are doing!

Most people with any general knowledge know Sweden is quite different from the UK and it is no surprise to us that different strategies might be concluded. That does not mean either is right or wrong - time will tell of course.

But just to illustrate how different we are I looked up a few statistics by way of comparison :

•  Sweden is twice the geographical size of the UK.
•  England is a 1/3rd of the geographical size of Sweden.
•  Sweden's population is 10 million.
•  England's population alone is 56 million. (so we have a population nearly 6 times larger crammed into an area of 1/3rd the size).
•  The UK's population is 68 million.
•  The population density in Sweden is about 20 people per sq kilometre
•  In the UK it is 267 per sq kilometre.
•  In England it is 430 per sq kilometre on average and in the South East and the Birmingham  conurbation - even higher - they are the most densely populated areas in Europe.
•  Stockholm - Sweden's capital has a population of under a million.
•  London's population is over 8 million.
•  Sweden only has two other large cities - Gothenburg - pop 570k - Malmo 340k. Compare that with the UK. Bristol is about 450k.
•  One other point - Sweden is a much more wealthy country than the UK when you use the per capita GDP measure (per person).
•  Sweden's per capita GDP is 4.5 x larger than the world's average. England's is only 2.25 times the world average. Consequently we have nothing like the same resources per head of population to pay for public services like the NHS and welfare benefits. Too many of our people think we are the 5th or 6th most wealthy country in the world. We are not. We are 27th!

So after reading this factual list above would you objectively expect the UK and Sweden to have the same strategy !? Get behind the government guidelines - they are trying to recommend what the science says is the best for our nation - not for Sweden - or any other nation.