Sweden’s Regret, the Relentless 5G Conspiracy, and a Lesson on Hugging
A roundup of stories we’re following about Covid-19 today
Published in
2 min readJun 4, 2020
- Sweden has become notorious for its bold and controversial approach to controlling the spread of Covid-19: It never completely locked down, businesses and parks remained open, and some kids still went to school. It helped protect the economy, but the cost was steep: The death toll became the highest per capita in the world in the week leading up to June 2, reports the Guardian. Now, the architect of Sweden’s coronavirus response has admitted they should have done more.
- Brazil now has the second-largest Covid-19 outbreak in the world. The virus has ravaged not only large cities like Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro but also regions deep in the Amazon rainforest that indigenous tribes call home. Now, as NBC reports, indigenous deaths caused by the disease have increased by more than fivefold in the past month, recalling the devastation wrought by colonizers who brought smallpox, malaria, measles, and influenza in centuries past.
- The baseless 5G conspiracy emerged early in the pandemic, leading people to burn down 5G towers in the U.K. and United States because they believed the towers were “broadcasting” the disease. It’s well established that the disease is caused by the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but that hasn’t stopped believers from burning down the towers — and attacking and harassing the telecoms engineers who maintain the networks, as The…
