Sweden Norway COVID

Sweden and Norway have different approaches to COVID, and it shows in the statistics.

Norway voted overwhelmingly (368208 to 184, 99.95%) to leave Sweden on 26 October 1905 and became a separate constitutional monarchy.

My grandfather was born in Sweden in 1889, and travelled to Trondheim Norway sometime before 1911. He travelled from Norway to Oregon in March 1911. I don't know why he left Sweden, or chose to travel from wintertime Norway (via England and Canada), but Sweden was ruled by hereditary aristocrats at that time. In the 1950s freedoms were still limited, so many college students travelled the US to get better educations. Aristocratic/mercantilist influence may still distort Swedish decisionmaking. This helps explain Norway's stronger economy and crisis management.

Norway and Sweden are two different countries, with different attitudes. My grandfather chose Norway, then Oregon in the United States, He married in Oregon, raised a family, and spent two thirds of his life here. I am no more a Swede than I am a Finn, or Scotch-English, or west African. I, like my grandfather, am a U.S. citizen. Unlike him, I did not actively renounce Sweden for the U.S., but I approve of his choice.

Epidemic Response

The statistics as of 27 May 2020, according to Wikipedia:

• active = Infections - (deaths + recoveries)
• est+Deaths = (deaths/recoveries)*active
• All numbers are suspect; many are created on command for untrustworthy politicians, rather than based on complete and frequent testing.

Norway has done far more to limit this pandemic than Sweden has, and it shows in the statistics. Both nations have vastly better public health systems and pandemic response than most of the US, so the US numbers are far less trustworthy. The state of Oregon has relatively good testing and public health awareness, but has far more active cases (and future possible deaths) than Norway.