The plague has relapsed in quite a number of countries. England, Scotland and France have strengthened their anti-epidemic measures again in tandem. Israel has squarely reactivated its national seclusion policy. Though Sweden did not shut down borders and suspended school classes as it had used to, the people have been living a normal life and the pandemic has been retreating. While the economies of the UK and U.S. are nosediving, Sweden’s central bank anticipates just a slight drop of 3.6% in its economic growth this year. In retrospect, was the less costly business-as-usual mentality leveraged by Sweden more instrumental than the scorched earth policy with fight-to-live mentality employed by the UK, the U.S. and Europe in preventing and confronting the epidemic head-on?

Perhaps its monetary cost is low, but the death toll is high. In terms of the proportion of the number of deaths in the total population, the death rate from the disease in Sweden, which ranks number 5 globally, is 10 times higher than that in Norway and Finland, its neighbourhood countries. Life is priceless. Giving up lives in exchange for economic stability is most probably not acceptable to any democratic society. That said, Sweden, known for its robust social welfare setup, is not a cold-blooded autocratic state in any sense. How come the Swedish brook such let-it-be measures to confront the epidemic?

The most plausible answer is the majority of the deaths in Sweden are found in homes for the aged that are mainly hospices, where residencies usually do not last for more than 6 months. It is not difficult to understand that this group of people are easily contracted. As a matter of fact, regardless of places, the virus will pick on the elderly with heart disease and diabetes, while the young will suffer less despite being infected. It is not unusual that the deaths from the disease in Sweden are mainly found in homes for the elderly. Nonetheless, political pressure of shutting down borders and sealing the country induced by the high death toll must be overwhelming. How could the Swedish government go against it all the way through?

It seems the national quality is the key. Swedish minister for health would say that it is not the government but the nationals who are responsible for fighting the virus; the government would provide information on washing hands frequently, staying away from places where people gather and how to effectively prevent infection, with which the people voluntarily comply. As such , the pandemic can be contained without radical measures like national lockdown and suspension of market transactions and school classes. With such a laissez faire policy carried out by the technocrats in charge of public health, does their direct superior – the democratically elected government – not come under pressure from the public opinion to pursue the stringent anti-epidemic measures adopted by its neighbourhood countries?

To answer this question, the national quality still plays an essential role. In the constitutional government, Swedish health ministry, which operates like the central bank, is independent from the government, laying down anti-epidemic measures on its own; and the law stipulates that a national lockdown is always the last resort. Even though the virus broke in in full fury, the Swedish bore it with equanimity. Despite the high death toll, they didn’t create a commotion to press the government to weigh in, but left more room for the 15-people team in the health ministry to look closely at the development of the plague in different regions, to which they responded professionally. How could the team remain composed in such a crisis and team leader Anders Nordström become people’s hero?

Again, the national quality is the key. Nordström is a virologist who advocates education. He convinced his colleagues and the public opinion representatives that there is no shortcut for fighting an epidemic, but it has to start with instilling in the mass the scientific knowledge of epidemic prevention. He holds the view that sporadic suspensions of school classes and shutdowns of eateries are not conducive to cutting off transmission chain, but will misinform kids and the public that the mitigated epidemic allows of washing their hands less frequently and close contacts with people, which are mandatory for fighting the virus. He believes that fostering healthy and hygienic habits from childhood, instead of complying with do’s and don’ts during epidemic outbreaks, is the way to fight infectious diseases. Hasn’t using serving chopsticks become Hong Kong people’s habit since the SARS disaster?

Everyone should do their part, which is not confined to cleansing hands regularly and using serving chopsticks, to fight an epidemic. Pneumonia virus picks on patients with chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes, which are caused by habits hazardous to health. Isn’t everybody pursuing healthy habits the most effective way to battle against the virus? In his speech made when he was appointed as an academician at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, he pointed out that most serious threat humans are going to be confronted with is the super virus parasitic on animals and generated by a reshuffle of DNA. Unfortunately, he was right: Both SARS virus and Wuhan virus are parasitic on free-ranging and farm-raised wild animals like masked palm civets and pangolins. Even now, some people still believe game meats are good for health. The dim-witted are in fact the murderers who have indirectly taken millions of lives.

Though the current pandemic conditions are undoubtedly critical, we are able to stay composed when looking at the big picture. Nordström indicated in those days that quite a number of viruses were super killers: HIV killed 800 thousand people every year; malaria and hepatitis C took 400 thousand lives. In spite of no vaccine against these viruses available till now, scientists have known well the efficacious way to tackle the viruses – managing personal hygiene well. While everyone is seeing vaccines as saviors, about 300 to 700 thousand people are killed by flu globally every year despite inoculations against the disease being provided everywhere. Vaccinations are definitely not a panacea. Prevention always outperforms cure, which is why Nordström deems education the basic of fighting epidemic.

To Nordström, fighting epidemic is a long battle for viruses cannot be subdued in one go. Coping with it with a business-as-usual mentality in order to build groups immunity is also not his endeavor. In a modern society where economic activities are highly interrelated and transportations are well developed, unless up to 80% or 90% of total population are immune to the virus, the only choice is to shut down borders, suspend school classes and market transactions, and ground people at home in order to cut off the transmission chain. Being business-as-usual is easier said than done. Everyone being on full alert and fostering good habits is the only effective way to get rid of the virus. And that’s nothing more than enhancing people’s quality through education.

Click here for Chinese version

---------------------------------

Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app: bit.ly/2yMMfQE

To download the latest version,

iOS: bit.ly/AD_iOS

Android: bit.ly/AD_android

Or search Appledaily in App Store or Google Play