• Login
  • Register
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result

South Korea, Poster Child for Containment Strategy, Now Has Same Excess Mortality as Sweden

by Noah Carl
30 June 2022 8:02 AM

Until recently, South Korea was the poster child for the ‘contain and vaccinate’ strategy, having kept infections to a minimum until completing its vaccine rollout.

In November of last year, former ‘Zero Covid’ proponent Devi Sridhar argued, “It is never too late to learn lessons from countries such as South Korea, which pursued maximum suppression, and succeeded.” And in a super-viral tweet, Vincent Rajkumar (a professor at the Mayo Clinic) proclaimed, “South Korea followed the textbook principles of epidemiology. Kept deaths 40 times lower all the way till 75% of population fully vaccinated. This is success.”

All that was true until February of this year, when the country saw its first major outbreak. This outbreak, as I noted previously, led to a large spike in excess mortality; by March’s end, the number of weekly deaths was almost 70% higher than normal.  

Owing to this spike, South Korea now has the same excess mortality as Sweden – which took a famously relaxed approach to dealing with Covid. Note: the chart below is based on weekly deaths, rather than age-standardised mortality rates, so it overstates excess mortality in both countries.

Incidentally, you wouldn’t know this from looking at the official Covid death rates. As the chart below indicates, the number of ‘confirmed’ Covid deaths per million people is much higher in Sweden, presumably due to differences in testing or diagnosis. Which illustrates the importance of tracking excess mortality.

So, the country that did least to contain Covid has ended up with the same death toll as one of the countries that did most. What’s more, the majority of Sweden’s infections occurred before the vaccine rollout, whereas the vast majority of South Korea’s occurred after. Which suggests the benefits of containing the virus until after the vaccine rollout have been overstated.

Of course, South Korea didn’t do terribly. By containing the virus using border controls and contact tracing, they avoided really draconian lockdowns, and saw a comparatively mild downturn. Yet the measures they took still constitute a major infringement on civil liberties. As the Guardian notes, “Koreans’ movements were so finely and publicly tracked that secret love affairs and even hidden sexualities were brought to light.”   

Anyone who cares about civil liberties will now have to ask whether South Korea’s strategy was worth it, given that Sweden ended up with the same death toll. 

Tags: Excess MortalitySouth KoreaSweden

Donate

We depend on your donations to keep this site going. Please give what you can.

Donate Today

Comment on this Article

You’ll need to set up an account to comment if you don’t already have one. We ask for a minimum donation of £5 if you'd like to make a comment or post in our Forums.

Sign Up
Previous Post

ONS Data Suggest Vaccine Effectiveness Against Death Has Been Overestimated

Next Post

Children Need to be Taught to See Through The Lies

Subscribe
Login
Notify of
Please log in to comment

To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

13 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

DONATE

PODCAST

The Sceptic | Episode 40: Rob Bates on Stopping Britain Becoming Majority-Minority, Tilak Doshi on Trump vs Green Blob and Mario Trabucco on Osborne’s Elgin Marbles Betrayal

by Richard Eldred
13 June 2025
1

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editor’s Picks

News Round-Up

19 June 2025
by Richard Eldred

J.K. Rowling Radicalised by TERFs, Says Stephen Fry

19 June 2025
by Will Jones

Solar Power to Blame for Spain’s Disastrous Blackout, Official Investigation Finds

18 June 2025
by Will Jones

Another Nail in the EV Coffin

19 June 2025
by Sallust

Ed Miliband is Losing the Fight for Net Zero

19 June 2025
by Ben Pile

J.K. Rowling Radicalised by TERFs, Says Stephen Fry

22

News Round-Up

21

Iran is Not Rational. It’s Part of the Islamist Death Cult

51

Tearing Bodies Apart on the Altar of Science

21

Ed Miliband is Losing the Fight for Net Zero

13

Iran Threatens Energy Market Meltdown as it “Reviews” Closure of Strait of Hormuz

19 June 2025
by Tilak Doshi

Ed Miliband is Losing the Fight for Net Zero

19 June 2025
by Ben Pile

Pointless International Research – Paid For By You, The Taxpayer

19 June 2025
by Charlotte Gill

Tearing Bodies Apart on the Altar of Science

18 June 2025
by Dr David Bell

German Pensioner Who Called Green Politician Robert Habeck a Moron Found Guilty of Five Criminal Retweets and Fined €825

18 June 2025
by Eugyppius

POSTS BY DATE

June 2022
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
27282930  
« May   Jul »

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

POSTS BY DATE

June 2022
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
27282930  
« May   Jul »

DONATE

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editor’s Picks

News Round-Up

19 June 2025
by Richard Eldred

J.K. Rowling Radicalised by TERFs, Says Stephen Fry

19 June 2025
by Will Jones

Solar Power to Blame for Spain’s Disastrous Blackout, Official Investigation Finds

18 June 2025
by Will Jones

Another Nail in the EV Coffin

19 June 2025
by Sallust

Ed Miliband is Losing the Fight for Net Zero

19 June 2025
by Ben Pile

J.K. Rowling Radicalised by TERFs, Says Stephen Fry

22

News Round-Up

21

Iran is Not Rational. It’s Part of the Islamist Death Cult

51

Tearing Bodies Apart on the Altar of Science

21

Ed Miliband is Losing the Fight for Net Zero

13

Iran Threatens Energy Market Meltdown as it “Reviews” Closure of Strait of Hormuz

19 June 2025
by Tilak Doshi

Ed Miliband is Losing the Fight for Net Zero

19 June 2025
by Ben Pile

Pointless International Research – Paid For By You, The Taxpayer

19 June 2025
by Charlotte Gill

Tearing Bodies Apart on the Altar of Science

18 June 2025
by Dr David Bell

German Pensioner Who Called Green Politician Robert Habeck a Moron Found Guilty of Five Criminal Retweets and Fined €825

18 June 2025
by Eugyppius

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union
  • Home
  • About us
  • Donate
  • Privacy Policy

Facebook

  • X

Instagram

RSS

Subscribe to our newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In

© Skeptics Ltd.

wpDiscuz
You are going to send email to

Move Comment