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How Sweden Proved the World Wrong About Lockdown

by Will Jones
29 February 2024 3:24 PM

Two Swedish researchers, Fredrik N.G. Andersson, an Associate Professor at the Department of Economics at Lund University, and Lars Jonung, a Professor Emeritus at the same university, have shown once again that Sweden proves the world wrong about lockdown. In Spiked, they write about their new research, published in the journal Economic Affairs.

In 2020, countries across the world followed in the footsteps of China and locked down hard against COVID-19. Liberties were drastically curtailed. As was economic activity, forcing governments to borrow tens if not hundreds of billions of pounds each to keep businesses and furloughed workers afloat.

In Europe, one notable exception to this was Sweden. The Swedish Government, despite facing heavy criticism, decided against imposing tight restrictions on social activity. The evidence now overwhelmingly suggests that Sweden made the right choice.

Did lockdown restrictions do more harm than good? Did they even work at all? We tried to answer these questions in a recent paper for the journal, Economic Affairs. We looked at how different OECD countries in Europe, including the U.K., fared during the pandemic – both in terms of the economy and excess deaths. We took a particular interest in Sweden.

Although we could not explore every possible impact of the various lockdown measures, our conclusions were straightforward: countries that imposed more lockdown measures did not experience lower excess death rates. In fact, Sweden had one of the lowest excess death rates towards the end of the pandemic, with fewer people dying compared with a normal pre-pandemic year.

It is true that Sweden fared less well during the spring of 2020. However, these problems were temporary and limited to certain regions. This was mainly due to Swedes returning from winter vacations in the Alps, where the virus was spreading rapidly. In most parts of Sweden, the spread was modest and fully in line with that observed in other Nordic countries.

In fact, in our research, we could not find any correlation between lockdowns and excess deaths. Our results do not imply that every single lockdown measure was ineffective. Since all countries in Europe imposed a large number of social-distancing restrictions, including Sweden, we can only conclude that imposing full lockdown measures and ordering people to stay at home had little additional impact, if any. (In fact, our paper found a positive correlation between harsher lockdowns and excess deaths, though this was not statistically significant.)

On the other hand, say the researchers, the economic effects of lockdown were “overwhelmingly negative. The more a country locked down, the larger the decline in GDP”.

Worth reading in full.

It’s been said over and over again since 2020 of course, but it bears repeating because the orthodoxy – as seen in the U.K. Covid Inquiry – is still that lockdowns were necessary and effective and the biggest mistake was not doing them quick enough and hard enough. What will it take to dispel that deadly myth?

Tags: Excess DeathLockdownLockdown costLockdown harmsSweden

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12 Comments
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zebedee
zebedee
1 year ago

Flattening the curve means extending the duration of the epidemic and reducing acquired immunity so that when you unlock you get another wave.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4kWbYlopN4

78
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago
Reply to  zebedee

I seem to remember the UK’s lockdowns were so effective that they caused “cases” of “covid” to plummet in Sweden.

70
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago

“What will it take to dispel that deadly myth?”

A few generations. Very few people have anything to gain by public recognition of the truth, including a large proportion of the general public. I tend to think most people must have known it was bollocks from at least the time of scotch eggs.

115
0
wokeman
wokeman
1 year ago

Actually Belarus did precisely f all wet to Rona and had a comparable result to everywhere else in western Europe, this is the true control group. Football matches continued there and nothing was shut. Sweden is still an example of medical tyranny just not as bad as the rest of the west, Belarus is the true model of liberty. For defending liberty the hateful CIA tried to start a revolution in Belarus in August 2020, remarkably the large crowds didn’t cause mass deaths. Go figure.

Last edited 1 year ago by wokeman
115
-3
Monro
Monro
1 year ago
Reply to  wokeman

What evidence do you have that the CIA tried to start a revolution in Belarus in August 2020?

‘In a long speech to top officials, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko ranted against the alleged U.S.-led plan to destabilize the country and claimed that American allies in Europe have participated in the effort that took years to prepare, part of his attempts to cast the opposition as Western stooges.

Lukashenko didn’t provide evidence to back his claim that the U.S. had any involvement in the demonstrations.

His main challenger in the election, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, dismissed his comments as an attempt to divert public attention from rigging the vote and the violent crackdown on protests.

“There is just one reason behind the protests in Belarus and it’s known to everyone: Lukashenko has lost the vote, but he doesn’t want to step down,” Tsikhanouskaya told The Associated Press in a written comment. “People have denied Lukashenko their trust and support and demand that he leave.”

Ah! That would be none at all, then………..

Last edited 1 year ago by Monro
4
-11
AlexJ08
AlexJ08
1 year ago
Reply to  wokeman

Yes it was utterly ridiculous that football continued while the rest of us were locked away and restrained. And we all know why: because the greedy useless men in governments around the world LOVE football and the NBA etc.

What a clown world we live in, and we absolutely deserve the chaotic mess we currently find ourselves in. We get the governments and media that we deserve, for sure

13
0
Free Lemming
Free Lemming
1 year ago

Every time I see Spiked, or the DT, or w*nkers like Piers Morgan, or any of that previously lockdown-loving, ‘vaccine’ promoting, antivax-shaming, democracy-destroying ilk, spout their sudden wisdom, I feel physically sick. The whole lot should be hanging from a tree somewhere as far as I’m concerned. I’ll never forgive, I’ll never forget.

122
0
Solentviews
Solentviews
1 year ago
Reply to  Free Lemming

Brendan O’Neil was pretty solid from the beginning and couldn’t see the point of Lockdowns. Unfortunately others like Fraser ‘vax everyone’ Myers was an absolute disgrace and gave Piers Morgan a run for his money. I can’t ever look at Spiked in the same way now.

16
0
RTSC
RTSC
1 year ago
Reply to  Solentviews

Myers, and his tyrannical enforced vax everyone policy, is the reason I no longer subscribe to Spiked!

8
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
1 year ago

Come on Will, how often are we going to repeat this?

10
0
Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
1 year ago

It was always a reflection of the neurosis of the country that succumbed to such measures and so the Swedes demonstrated themselves to be especially level-headed especially given the trends over the rest of the globe. And then you get examples of very nasty totalitarianism in places like New Zealand, erstwhile the most innocuous country in the world perhaps. And then beautiful anomalies like Belarus. And those valiant African leaders who tried to warn the world but who were shortly dispatched. If you meditate on that period you will see that it was a time when the psyche of the nation was laid bare in stark relief.

31
0
Safedthinker
Safedthinker
1 year ago

‘What will it take to dispel that deadly myth?’
The words ‘The Diamond Princess’.

6
0

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