Skip to main content

How privatization hobbled Sweden’s response to coronavirus

Sweden’s longtime refusal to impose a general lockdown has seen it portrayed as an alternative “model” for coping with the pandemic. Yet death rates in its care homes have been appalling — and as a scandal that broke last month highlighted, much of the blame lies with the breakup and privatization of the country’s once-mighty public services.
 
by Anton Ösgård
 
Part 4 - Mass Privatizations
 
Most people working in the Swedish health care sector are underpaid and overworked, especially those employed in the elderly care home sector. The labor market in Sweden has been progressively deregulated, and precarious contracts are becoming the norm in the already disadvantaged care sector.

Jobs there have increasingly become reserved for the most exploited people in Swedish society — in many cases, immigrants living paycheck to paycheck. They are forced to accept contracts that do not meet their household needs, compelling many of these workers to take on multiple jobs, often in the same sector. What’s more, these workers are more likely to live in cramped apartments, oftentimes with other people working in low-paid service jobs, and more likely to be exposed to the virus.

In summary, the people working in the care sector are more prone to be exposed to the virus, unable to stay home if exhibiting symptoms (for fear of losing their jobs), and also go from care home to care home.

Added to that, only half of the workers have access to personal protective equipment (PPE) such as face masks, making transmission near inevitable. The people most likely to be exposed to the virus care for the people who need the most protecting — revealing the impossibility of maintaining a partial lockdown for only the vulnerable.

In Stockholm, where the spread of the virus has been most severe, we also find the highest number of care home workers on limited, precarious contracts. There is, however, a differentiation within Stockholm’s care homes, between the ones run as private, for-profit businesses and the public ones.

Unsurprisingly, the former more frequently offer bad working conditions. The private facilities that now make up half of the sector in the capital employ fewer workers per patient, and fewer of the workers who are there have a medical background. Even before the pandemic, the health care sector at large was struggling to keep up, and the crisis is now threatening the functioning of the whole system.

This is the result of a long onslaught against socialized care, brought on by processes of neoliberalization. In the start of the pandemic, when it became evident that the worst-off patients in the COVID-19 emergency wards needed respirators to survive, it came to public attention that Sweden did not have nearly enough of these lifesaving machines. 

In the early 1990s, hospitals nationwide maintained a stock of two thousand respirators, and an equivalent number of additional respirators were available in emergency stockpiles. But now, the total number of available respirators is one-tenth of that, with none in stockpile. The number of intensive care units in Sweden is the lowest in Europe per capita — half that of Italy — and since the 1990s, all of the country’s thirty-five military hospitals, intended to be taken into use in the event of a crisis, have been closed.

Sweden also has chronic shortages in medicine, after the privatization of the pharmacies and dismantling of the state stockpile. Added to that, the state’s own vaccine production has been privatized. 
 
All in all, the previously consolidated, socialized health care system has been smashed to pieces, turned into discrete units in competition with one another. Swedish COVID-19 patients are now reliant on a global network of just-in-time production, on wards made “efficient” by cutbacks and lower staff density, instead of the previously well-prepared, meticulously planned system that guaranteed care even in the face of multiple possible crises.

Comments

  1. The assassination of Olaf Palme paid off big time.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why are Israeli war criminals hiding out in Patagonia?

The Grayzone   The Grayzone 's Oscar Leon examines reports of Israeli veterans of Gaza hiding out in the Patagonia region of Argentina, a country governed by a hardcore supporter of Israel who has forged close ties to messianic networks and the government of Benjamin Netanyahu. To place the issue in a wider context, Leon spoke to veteran Argentine journalist Sebastian Salgado, and Santiago Cuneo, a former boss of Milei and now one of his fiercest opponents. 

BRICS expands to majority of world population: Vietnam joins, USA fails to divide China & Vietnam

Geopolitical Economy Report   BRICS has expanded to 20 countries - 10 members and 10 partners - after adding Vietnam. BRICS+ now makes up 43.93% of world GDP (PPP) and 55.61% of the global population. Ben Norton explains how the US failed to divide China and Vietnam in the Second Cold War. 

Funcionario de Trump: el director de la CIA “toma dictado” del Mossad sobre Irán

Un funcionario de la administración Trump le cuenta a The Grayzone que el Mossad israelí está usando al director de la CIA, John Ratcliffe y al jefe del CENTCOM, general Michael Kurilla, para influenciar a Trump con inteligencia manipulada sobre el programa nuclear iraní. Dentro de la Casa Blanca, los disidentes han sido aislados, preparando el terrenno para una guerra de cambio de régimen que pudiera costar vidas estadounidenses.   Max Blumenthal and Anya Parampil  Parte 4 - La jefa de gabinete aísla a Trump con “el general favorito de Israel”   El funcionario de la administración le contó a The Grayzone que la jefa de gabinete de la Casa Blanca, Suzie Wiles, se aseguró de que el presidente permaneciera rodeado por Ratcliffe y el general Michael Kurilla en los briefings relacionados con Irán. Se dice que Ratcliffe toma dictado del Mossad y lee los documentos que ellos prepararon al presidente sin ningún sentido de desapego crítico, o revelar que las valoraciones provinie...

Trump Welcomed a War Criminal to the White House

Senator Bernie Sanders   Benjamin Netanyahu has been indicted as a war criminal. His government is systematically killing and starving the people of Gaza. He will be remembered as one of the monsters of modern history. And Trump welcomed him to the White House.  

As Trump threatens BRICS, it grows stronger, resisting US dollar and Western imperialism

Geopolitical Economy Report   US President Donald Trump has threatened heavy tariffs on BRICS, claiming the organization is "dead", but it is actually growing in size and influence. 10 members and 10 partners participated in the 2025 BRICS summit in Brazil, where they discussed plans for dedollarization, trade and investment in national currencies, and how to create a more multipolar global order. Ben Norton explains.     Related:   Trump's tariffs: A unique opportunity for BRICS and the Global South to fully escape from dollar tyranny

Jeremy Corbyn: Gaza, Nuclear War & Why Movements Must Rise Now

Empire Files   Abby Martin sits down with MP Jeremy Corbyn in Bogotá during The Hague Group summit on Gaza. They discuss the limits of electoral politics, the danger of nuclear weapons, the central role of the US and UK in the Gaza genocide, and more.  

SHOCKING Outburst in EU Parliament: ‘Isráel Must Be Held Accountable!

The Africa News Network  

Israel Guilty Of SYSTEMATIC Sexual Violence Against Palestinians! – U.N. Confirms

The Jimmy Dore Show   A recent UN report titled "More Than a Human Can Bear" details systematic sexual and gender-based violence committed by Israeli forces and settlers against Palestinians since October 7. The report documents harrowing accounts of abuse, including rape, torture, and sexual humiliation of detainees—both men and women—by Israeli military and prison personnel. As Jimmy Dore points out, despite extensive evidence and testimonies, U.S. media and political figures have largely ignored or downplayed these findings, while continuing to repeat debunked claims about Hamas.  

US gov't is very afraid of BRICS and dedollarization, Trump insiders reveal

Geopolitical Economy Report   Close Donald Trump allies like Steve Bannon say "the president is pissed every time he looks at the BRICS de-dollarization effort". The US government fears the Global South's challenge to the exorbitant privilege of the dollar. Trump is trying to make an example out of Brazil, threatening high tariffs to punish Lula da Silva, who promotes a multipolar world and a new global reserve currency. Ben Norton explains.     Related:   Trump's tariffs: A unique opportunity for BRICS and the Global South to fully escape from dollar tyranny 

Israel is responsible for one of the cruelest genocides in modern history

UN Palestinian Rights Committee   In her address to the Human Rights Council on 3 July 2025, Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, warned of a genocide unfolding in Gaza and the West Bank.    She described the situation as “apocalyptic,” stating that “Israel is responsible for one of the cruelest genocides in modern history.”    With over 200,000 Palestinians reported killed or injured and the real toll “far higher,” she accused Israel of dismantling humanitarian aid in Gaza, replacing it with a “so-called 'Gaza Humanitarian Foundation' [that] is nothing else than a death trap.”    She emphasized that this was not an isolated crisis but part of a decades-long “settler colonial project of erasure” that has intensified in recent months through military force, starvation, and mass displacement. Albanese condemned the deep complicity of corporate and state actors i...