ABBA’s return may be long overdue, but Sweden’s premature return to normal is part of a wider rush to drop restrictions that could prolong the pandemic.

(Originally published Sept. 30 in “What in the World“) Reasonably intelligent people know you can’t believe everything you read—or watch. But not all of us are blessed with reasonable intelligence. That’s why misinformation is so dangerous and why media outlets need to be held accountable for the veracity of the content they publish. It’s good news, therefore, that Google’s YouTube has announced that it will begin removing videos that contain misinformation about vaccines.

While much of the developing world can’t yet get vaccines, there are still too many people in more prosperous areas who simply refuse to be vaccinated, often due to misplaced fears about potential side effects. This is particularly true in the former Soviet states.

Fortunately, more people everywhere else are choosing to protect themselves by getting vaccinated. This, combined with a rising recovery rate, is providing a growing number of populations with what is hopefully sufficient herd immunity and a low infection rate to justify lifting restrictions on gathering and travel:

• Chile (negative PCR test, 5 days of quarantine)
• Denmark (no quarantine for vaccinated visitors)
• Iceland (no quarantine for vaccinated visitors with negative PCR test)
• Malta (no quarantine for vaccinated visitors)
• Portugal (no quarantine, those arriving by air must have negative PCR test)
• Qatar (no quarantine for vaccinated visitors, subject to antibody/PCR test upon arrival)
• Spain (no quarantine for vaccinated visitors)
• United Arab Emirates (no quarantine for vaccinated visitors, details vary depending on emirate)
• Uruguay (closed to nonresidents)

Unfortunately, many other nations are surrendering to the virus too soon and lifting their restrictions. The latest is Sweden, which of course threw in with Covid-19 early in the pandemic by declaring that it wouldn’t impose social distancing measures and instead let the virus run unimpeded through its population, resulting in such a high death toll that it was forced to backtrack. More than 10% of Swedes have been infected by the virus, and while current infection rates have dropped to a reasonable level, Sweden has still vaccinated less than 2/3 of its population. This provides the virus with a reservoir of individuals to infect and in whom to mutate into a strain that avoid immunity. So thanks, Sweden. https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/-crgQGdpZR0?rel=0&autoplay=0&showinfo=0&enablejsapi=0

But Swedish treachery is really nothing next to the perfidy perpetrated time and again by the United States, which has continually snatched defeat from the jaws of victory over Covid-19.

New hope may be on the way thanks to drug companies such as Merck and Pfizer, which are testing pills that could prevent infection by Covid-19. These appear to work like pre-exposure prophylaxis on offer to prevent HIV infection, by interfering with the virus’ ability to replicate.