[bjeds]

Expect that this Hacker News thread will be overrun by Swedish patriots who will, with tooth and nail, argue for Swedish exceptionalism and downvote all criticism. War is Peace and all that.

I am ashamed how my country handled this pandemic and I'm ashamed that my fellow citizens are more interested in managing the public image of Sweden rather than learning from obvious mistakes.

I am therefore thankful that Nature published this. It has been debated since early 2020, but the narrative of Swedish exceptionalism is so strong, especially on the Internet, that I wouldn't be surprised if this will tried to be burried.

I have lost friends due to this, not because people have died of Covid but because foreign nationals, who moved to Sweden to work on some of the famous tech companies, have realized how poorly Sweden handled the pandemic. They have now moved to other countries instead.

[Tade0]

> the narrative of Swedish exceptionalism is so strong, especially on the Internet, that I wouldn't be surprised if this will tried to be burried.

I always thought this was an American thing, but turns out just about every nation has this to some extent.

[emj]

I've never met a group of people who did not see themselves as special, this view is common in all countries I've lived in. I wonder if someone has tried to measure it objectively.

[shalmanese]

> I always thought this was an American thing, but turns out just about every nation has this to some extent.

There's a deep irony in this sentence.

[robrorcroptrer]

I am a Swede and I think most of my peers are delusional fans of our institutions and leaders. The leaders tries to cover up everything, and holds no accountability. People are such fans of Anders Tegnell - the man who uses an extreme amount of words to say almost nothing, in addition to almost never admitting to failure or being wrong. They go hand in hand with the politicians on this part.

[emn13]

I seem to remember that he did publicly admit certain policies were poor in retrospect - a bit of googling e.g. finds this, just months after the start of the pandemic: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-52903717

[legulere]

It’s a bit like reverse Jantelagen. You're not to think Sweden isn’t better than the rest.