depending on where in the world you are some of the footage that I'm about to
show you in this video might shock you or even disturb you but I just wanted to
share some real-life footage of the situation in Sweden in Stockholm in
particular right now and for those of you who don't know I live in Sweden I
have lived here for basically my entire life except for two ish years when I
lived in the US and I do want to say that I'm not fully engaged and
everything that's happening right now I decided a while back not to dive too
deep into the news because I think doing that comes with more negatives than
positives so I only keep myself informed on what I need to know in order to keep
myself and those around me as safe as possible and not to add any stress to
the health care and also since the situation is constantly changing and
being monitored everything that I'll be talking about is how the situation is
today you know tomorrow might look different so there has been no lockdown
in Sweden most places have remained open and there's been tons of footage showing
the streets here in Stockholm where people are walking around in crowds
eating out taking the train hanging out with friends and by the looks of its
kind of living on as usual and ever since the very beginning of the pandemic
Sweden has been criticised by other countries for its approach of tackling
the virus which has looked very different from most other countries and
there has been headlines such as Sweden's controversial approach working
and a Sweden's lack of coronavirus lockdown a fatal mistake and in the
beginning most of the criticism and headlines were negative calling the
approach lazy but now I've seen that there's been change for some who are
starting to I guess see the possibility that maybe the approach is being
effective there's also been a lot of needs but so yeah what's going on really
in Sweden so there's definitely been more recommendations from the
authorities as opposed to restrictions although there has been some
restrictions such as you're not allowed to be in crowds of more than 50 people
but I guess the attitude has been like we recommend that you don't throw a
dinner party with your friends but we can't stop you with you choose to do
that so technically most people could live on more or less as usual would they
choose to with some restrictions of course but a lot of people myself
included choose not to and when I say that I'm not taking into consideration
those who have lost their jobs or worse who of course cannot live on as usual
but I'm more referring to the possibility of going out and going
places and so on since a lot of places do you remain open like technically I
could still go to the gym go to my favorite restaurants and hang out with
friends but even though a lot of these places are open many of them do still
have certain rules to ensure distance is being held but I wouldn't be able to for
example go to my local library since it's been closed now and I also wouldn't
be able to go to certain museums now those are obviously not necessary places
to go to you but I'm just trying to paint the picture for you so why is
situation in Sweden like this why are Swedes seemingly living on as usual
instead of staying at home well generally speaking in Sweden the people
have quite a bit of trust in the authorities and the authorities have
quite a bit of trust in the people as the state epidemiologist said the
Swedish strategy is mainly based on voluntary cooperation and individual
responsibility also in Sweden pandemic or Notts people kind of naturally keep
their distance from each other you know more than half of all Swedish homes are
made up of one resident which is the highest proportion in Europe so it's not
like in many other countries where it's normal for a lot of people so you live
together and to have roommates and so on we are a bit isolated by nature so yeah
pandemic or not people aren't really up in your space so to speak
now what does it really look like when you go out for a stroll in the midst of
a pandemic here in Stockholm so I do go out and walk
and so does a lot of other people and if you're going to go out especially if you
live in the city fully avoiding everyone is pretty much impossible you know
unless you take a drive out to the forest somewhere which actually did a
few weeks ago and you know actually even then we still were not completely alone
so yeah there's people everywhere and in my experience at least so far I think
most people are being respectful and do keep their distance but some people do
not so being alert is definitely a must unless you want to be walking side by
side with strangers because you definitely can't count on everyone
cooperating and distancing themselves you know even though a lot of people do
as for my thoughts on how Sweden is handling this like I said I'm not
keeping up with everything and I'm definitely no expert but I'm shocked at
how so many people choose to live on as usual you know hanging out with their
friends going out of the club and so on and how people use the argument life
must go on with no consideration to the elderly the vulnerable and the
healthcare and I think that regardless of formal restrictions or not the least
we can do is sacrifice at least part of our everyday lives for the sake of those
I just mentioned you know it's definitely disturbing to see how on one
hand health care workers are working so hard and making so many sacrifices and
then on the other hand some people can't even sacrifice seeing their friends for
beers now I'd love to know your thoughts on the situation I know that whenever I
post being outdoors on my Instagram I always get messages from people who have
been home for weeks and who aren't allowed to go out so please share what
your situation looks like thank you for watching and keep safe and I'll see you
soon
you