The COVID-19 pandemic and the Swedish strategy: Epidemiology and postmodernism

Martin Lindström

doi:10.1016/j.ssmph.2020.100643

The COVID-19 pandemic and the Swedish strategy: Epidemiology and postmodernism

SSM Popul Health. 2020 Aug 8:11:100643. doi: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2020.100643. eCollection 2020 Aug.

Author

Martin Lindström¹

Affiliation

¹ Social Medicine and Health Policy, Department of Clinical Sciences in Malmö, Lund University, S-205 02, Malmö, Sweden.

Abstract

The aim is to outline the underlying epidemiological thinking and mentality in post-materialist and postmodern Sweden behind the Swedish strategy. The aim is not to investigate the handling of the pandemic in Sweden in the long-run. Overconfidence in herd immunity, overconfidence in individual responsibility in a pandemic needing community-centered approaches, overconfidence in evidence-based medicine and neglect to coordinate with the WHO and other countries may be associated with post-materialist values and postmodernism including opposition against modern authority, rationality and science, and also an anti-traditionalist stance towards older generations. COVID-19 epidemiology and postmodernism may be a dangerous combination.

Keywords: COVID-19; Corona virus; Evidence-based medicine; Herd immunity; Individual responsibility; Pandemic; Post-materialism; Postmodernism; Sweden; Swedish strategy.