[IronRanger]

Sweden has had a lower per-capita COVID deathtoll than European states with heavy lockdowns.

Lockdown South American nations have had about the same COVID toll as non-lockdown nations.

Same when you look at individual US states.

Doesn't seem to be much of a link between lockdowns and COVID - but a heavy link between lockdown and economic and social devastation.

The virus will follow its own seasonal trends, impacted by herd immunity, as every respiratory virus has.

[mads_ravn]

> Sweden has had a lower per-capita COVID deathtoll than European states with heavy lockdowns.

But 5-12 times that of comparable neighboring countries like Norway, Finland and Denmark

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1104709/coronavirus-deat...

And by own admission the strategy failed

https://www.thelocal.se/20201215/what-does-the-first-report-...

[ynfnehf]

The corona commission has not yet made any conclusions regarding whether lockdown or not lockdown was the right decision, that will (maybe) come later. So I don't really know how your article is relevant to that. The government and the independent agencies don't seem to believe that a harsh lockdown is the correct thing to do.

Why do you think the other Nordic countries are the most comparable? Languages are pretty similar, including some cultural similarities. But I would not be confident in saying that those factors are the most relevant to the spread of viruses. In 2018, there was something like 5x more deaths per capita from the flu in Denmark compared to Sweden (~2800 in Denmark and ~1000 in Sweden).

I just feel like you are making your job far too easy by just comparing 4 countries with each other, and claiming that they are all identical except for the different strategy. Especially since differences can have a very non-linear effects.

[mads_ravn]

Quoting from the article

> The report states that the main factor in the problems in residential homes for the elderly was simply the fact the virus spread so widely in society.

With regards to the difference in strategy, there has been analysis like this

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7227592/

Finally, and this is just a common sense argument, I believe it is clear that avoiding social interaction will slow transmission of airborne diseases. And lockdowns decrease social interactions (to a much higher degree than simple recommendations)

[mads_ravn]

Oh, I forgot, when looking at percentage of population over 65 both Sweden and Denmark clock in at ~20%, whereas the population density of Sweden is ~25 people/km^2 and Denmark has one of ~135 people/km^2.

In other words I will argue, that one would expect Denmark to have been hit harder, but there is one fifth the deaths per capita.

And I’m sorry that I am ranting, but this disease has caused so much dead and suffering, when it could have been stopped if we took it seriously - this upsets me. I was talking with a friend living in Taiwan and they’ve had ~750 cases in total with aggressive tracing and isolation tactics, so we know it is possible.

[ynfnehf]

Nobody lives in the vast forests in Sweden. The population density of Denmark would only be 2 people/km^2 if Greenland was included. The urbanization is, however, pretty similar, but Stockholm is still much larger than Copenhagen.

I'm not saying that there are not more similarities between the countries. Both drive on the right side of the road, and have flags with crosses, for example. But you still can't just make a list of similarities and then say that they are identical except for the strategy, since the difference could be something not on your list, including just simple random chance.

The report states that there is a correlation between population spread and the spread in the elderly care. They have not made any comment on how the strategy impacted the population spread. I saw the press conference, I know what they said. They refused to answer any question from journalists regarding the over-all strategy. You should understand articles before posting them.

[IronRanger]

And Norway's Prime Minister says they acted too harshly: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/30/coronavirus-norw...

You can find news articles that spin anything positively or negatively.

[slaw]

Here is comparison between Sweden and Norway. 'The observed temporary excess mortality likely arises because people in vulnerable groups die weeks or months earlier than they would otherwise, due to the timing and severity of the unusual external event.' https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.11.20229708v...