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Swedish Health Minister Lena Hallengren, Prime Minister Stefan Löfven
Photo: Henrik Montgomery / dpa
Last month things seemed to be going well for Sweden.
"Sweden was right," tweeted high-tech billionaire Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX.
On his short message, Musk hung a graphic with the Swedish corona death numbers: After extreme swings in spring, the curve was now just above the zero line.
Like Musk, many thought that the Scandinavian country's special route would have to pay off this fall.
Led by their state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell, the Swedes had largely trusted that they could manage the pandemic with just a few restrictions - common sense instead of coercion and lockdown.
"There is no second wave"
Anders Tegnell, Swedish state epidemiologist, on October 27th
The liberal strategy was watched with astonishment and celebrated by some around the world.
The blue and yellow Sweden flag is a popular accessory at rallies against the German corona policy.
The fact that the death rate from Covid-19 had risen many times higher in the spring than in neighboring Nordic countries and Germany did nothing to change the expectations that the Swedish model had aroused.
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