During the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the majority of national governments across the globe have embraced the idea of lockdowns. Meanwhile, Sweden has been criticized for not enforcing lockdown mandates.
Yet over 18 months after the pandemic, Sweden has had fewer excess coronavirus deaths compared to most of Europe.
Members of the mainstream media have criticized the Swedish government for it's decision not to enforce lockdowns, but there's no doubt that the Swedes appreciated the move as it meant they didn't have to face many months of social isolation.
When the government announced the decision to forego lockdowns, many claimed that Sweden would suffer many losses. But months later, the country didn't record as many deaths as others predicted.
And instead of celebrating the win, some tried to twist the facts to present an anti-Swedish narrative. In an article released in August 2021, the author presents data to make Sweden's outcomes look bad.
"Since the start of the pandemic, roughly 11 out of every 100 people in Sweden have been diagnosed with COVID-19, compared with 9.4 out of every 100 in the UK and 7.4 per 100 in Italy. Sweden has also recorded around 145 COVID-19 deaths for every 100,000 people — around three times more than Denmark, eight times more than Finland and nearly 10 times more than Norway," reads the article.
In the quote above, the author highlighted a comparison that focuses on diagnoses in U.K. and Italy because actual deaths from coronavirus are fewer per million in Sweden than in either UK or Italy. By using this comparison, the author just shows readers that coronavirus is less fatal in Sweden. There may be more cases recorded in the country, but there are also fewer deaths.
The author then looked at death rates to show that Sweden did worse compared to Denmark, Finland and Norway. But the claims are useless as Sweden actually has fewer excess deaths than other European countries.
Excess mortality is a more reliable measure of deaths in a country since it provides a more extensive view of the actual effects of both coronavirus and coronavirus policy. (Related: Sweden’s chief epidemiologist believes no-lockdown approach was winning strategy against COVID-19.)
Sweden proves lockdowns do more harm than good
It's true that there are other European countries with fewer deaths proportionally. For example, Denmark, Finland and Norway have remarkably low numbers of coronavirus deaths compared to the rest of Europe.
However, this doesn't explain why Sweden's approach to coronavirus measures did better compared to other EU member states, like France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and others.
Excess mortality in Sweden is estimated to be 785 per million people. It is estimated at 988 per million in France and 1,917 per million in Spain. In the United Kingdom, it is estimated at 1,657 per million.
Sweden has 7.7 percent more deaths in 2020 than its average for the preceding four years. Countries that have enforced several periods of strict lockdowns, such as Belgium and Spain, have had an excess mortality of 16.2 percent and 18.1 percent, respectively. Overall, 21 of the 30 countries with available statistics has higher excess mortality compared to Sweden.
In another data, which includes an adjustment due to differences in both the age structures and seasonal mortality patterns of countries analyzed, Sweden places 18th out of 26 in terms of mortality.
The "highest" or worst ranked are Poland, Spain and Belgium.
Another way of comparing Sweden to the rest of Europe is to examine excess mortality in 2020 and 2021 compared to "average monthly deaths" from 2016 to 2019. Since February 2020, total deaths that have been measured as a percentage of the 2016-2019 average are lower in Sweden compared to the "EU 27" in 14 out of 18 months.
While Denmark, Norway and Finland compare favorably against Sweden, a lot of other European countries can't say the same.
Compared to France, Sweden's excess monthly deaths are lower in 13 out of 18 months in that period. Comparisons are similar with Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. Out of Europe’s large nations, only Germany fares better than Sweden.
If you choose Finland, Denmark and Norway to compare Sweden with, there's no doubt that results will show Sweden as an outlier. But compared with most countries in Europe, along with the U.K., Sweden fares better. And even if Sweden did similarly compared to other European countries, this would still contradict the negative predictions of public health technocrats.
Sweden has fared much better than predictions of complete and utter disaster by mainstream media and so-called health experts.
Despite the meddling from mainstream media, at least 43 percent of Swedes have high or very high confidence in how the country is handling the pandemic. According to a survey, only 30 percent have low or very low confidence.
Sweden's government and health authority have acknowledged that they could have done more to protect Sweden’s elderly. But they did what they could to suppress the pandemic while also ensuring that the citizens aren't stuck at home and unable to work because of oppressive measures like lockdowns.
Visit Pandemic.news to learn how Sweden and other countries are handling the coronavirus pandemic.
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