Michigan And Sweden: A Covid19 Comparison

Much has been made of the fact that the Swedes did not do a lock down of their society while other nations did.  Now with a "second wave"  of Covid19 sweeping across Michigan I though a comparison of where we stand today might be apt and useful.

Why compare?  Well, it turns out Sweden and Michigan are roughly similar in population, but took a vastly divergent approach in handling the outbreak.

Since it looks like our Governor Half-Whit is poised to double down via the Department of Health and Human Services on the lock down and harsh restrictions approach, it makes sense to see  how a different approach as fared.

Let's see how Michigan and Sweden measure up:

Data is that which is reported as of today.

Sweden, without a lock down, did markedly better in all relevant areas in terms of number of cases, deaths, and their economy in terms of unemployment.  They did it without a lock down, a mask mandate, and without stupidly ordering nursing homes to take in Covid19 positive patients.  

 Far harder to quantify is the loss of quality of life in Michigan due to the lock downs, those harmed from losing their jobs, those suffering from mental and emotional harm form the lock downs, and those who may yet die form not having their medical issues either detected or properly treated during the lock downs.

Let's rethink returning to a lock down for this state, now shall we?  The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.  Let's instead use the "best science and best data as our Gov Half Whit likes to say, and try a different and more effective approach.

Anarcho-Tyranny Swedish Style

Borepatch has a good post on the meaning of Anarcho-Tyranny. In short its when the government doesn't enforce important laws against criminals but instead cracks down on law-abiding citizens for petty matters.

Sweden it seems is busy living it: Borepatch notes that while the police have a publicly announced policy of non-interference witht he rioters, owners of cars torched by the rioters are receiving parking tickets.

To add further insult to injury, while having a hands off approach to rioters, the Swedish police are apparently not hesitating to use force, including tear gas, to make Swedish citizens and property owners disperse and prevent them from defending their property from the rampaging "youthful immigrants".

From Gateway Pundit:

Faced by another night of terror at the hands of predominantly immigrant rioters, Swedes grown tired of the police’s inability to put an end to the unrest took to the streets Friday night to defend their neighborhoods.

. . .

In the Stockholm suburb of Tumba the police decided to abandon their earlier non-intervention policy as a large group of police officers rounded up and dispersed a group of vigilantes trying to fend off rioters.

The decision to round up vigilantes while, according to Stockholm Chief of Police Mats Löfving, ”doing as little as possible” to stop rioters, met with a wave of protests in various social media and on the Internet.

That's anarcho-tyranny for you all right, European-style.

Oh, and still not a word of it in either the Detroit Free Press nor the Detroit News websites in the world news section.

Stockholm Riots Continue, Detroit Media Continues To Ignore Them, And Swedish Socialist Have The Answer

Riots continue in Stockholm with not a mention in either the Detroit News nor the Detroit Free Press. One would think it was news-worthy by now, but not to either of those august institutions.

The Swedes are continuing to treat the rioters with kid-gloves and announcing they will take only minimal measures against the rioters. By failing to crack down after 6 nights the riots simply carry on. As expected, the news simply refers to the rioters as immigrants but says that community and religious leaders were trying to stem the violence...but the report fails to name that religion nor that community:

Of course, the Swedish socialists seem to have the answer. It's an insane answer, but it's the only answer their ideology has:

When you try to willingly and with conviction push your own culture and identity out of existence, you're done.

While Tam seems to think the Euros will go from zero to jackboots in the face of such rioting in the grand old European style, it looks instead like the chicken Swedes will race to appease and surrender as quickly as possible.

All The News That's Not Fit To Get Some Print

Tam at VFTP posts that Reuters reports on riots in Stockholm, Sweden where Muslims, cutely and euphemistically called "youths", have been setting fire to cars and rioting for three days. The Reuters report neither menitons the "M" word nor the "I" word to identify these "disaffected youths".

Unsurprisingly, the Swedish left is blaming itself for the riots rather than the wrongdoers.

Our Left Says: "Why do they hate us?", and the Swedish Left says: "Why do they burn our cars?"

The left-leaning tabloid Aftonbladet said the riots represented a "gigantic failure" of government policies, which had underpinned the rise of ghettos in the suburbs.

"We have failed to give many of the people in the suburbs a hope for the future," Anna-Margrethe Livh of the opposition Left Party wrote in the daily Svenska Dagbladet.

Interestingly enough, neither the Detroit Free Press nor the Detroit News deign to mention this rather news-worthy, multi-day riot.

Funny how they've wholly failed to cover it while instead giving the lead in their compilation of World/Nation news such stories as "McDonald's CEO bawled-out by 9-year-old" (The Free Press) and Report: Nation’s kids need to get more physical (The Detroit News). Note the resuklts of searches for "Sweden": The Freepand The News - not a single mention of any riots at all.

Given our large Muslim population here in the Detroit area, it's hard to tell if this media blackout is meant to kowtow to them or instead is to prevent inspiration of some spontaneous youth riots here.

Remember, its not news until they decide to cover it.