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

Lindström M

SSM Popul Health 11 (-) 100643 [2020-08-00; online 2020-08-08]

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.

Type: Journal article

PubMed 32885019

DOI 10.1016/j.ssmph.2020.100643

Crossref 10.1016/j.ssmph.2020.100643

pii: S2352-8273(20)30280-9
pii: 100643
pmc: PMC7453138


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