Many proponents of the "religion" of lockdowns scoff at the mere mention of Sweden and how it handled the coronavirus pandemic. They say you can't compare the United States to Sweden. It's a different population and culture. Some will say they lost more people than their neighboring Nordic countries.

But now new infections in Sweden are far less than their neighbors of Norway and Denmark. Sweden bucked the trend of almost all Western countries and did not lock down. They took precautions and banned large gatherings, but kids went to school and most businesses remained open. Lots of people think that they're a socialist country with strict government controls, but they're not. They do have high taxes and a large 'welfare' state with generous benefits, but they are more of the land of the free and home of the brave that we seem to be these days.

Sweden has slightly more people than New Jersey. Sweden is just over 10 million in population, whereas New Jersey is at 9.2 million. Area wise, Sweden is much larger and more spread out. Most Swedes live alone. New Jersey is more densely populated and relatively few of us live alone. You can take those factors into account and make an argument for why things worked out the way they did in Sweden and why they didn't work out so well here.

Our governor is still keeping many things limited and starving small businesses in the process. There is a lot the world can learn from what Sweden did (or didn't do) in response to COVID-19. The biggest lesson is, we must NEVER let our government do this to a free people ever again or we will cease to be the greatest country on the planet. New Jersey and a half dozen other "progressive" states are leading the way to making that a reality.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Dennis Malloy. Any opinions expressed are Dennis' own.

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