During the COVID-19 pandemic, Denmark and Sweden took very different approaches. While Denmark imposed mask mandates, closed schools and repeatedly closed so-called ‘non-essential’ businesses, Sweden imposed hardly any all-encompassing restrictions. Lockdown proponents have accused the Swedish authorities of recklessness and claimed their approach has led to an unnecessary death toll.
But now the numbers are out, and according to two Danish professors, Christian Kanstrup Holm, a virologist and Professor at the University of Aarhus, and Morten Petersen, Professor of Biology at the University of Copenhagen, in an article in the Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende on July 8th, excess mortality in 2020 and 2021 was in fact the same in both countries.
In Denmark, harsh restrictions were justified by the need to prevent the breakdown of the healthcare system and the public has generally accepted this justification. The professors’ conclusion however is that this justification does not hold: despite very few restrictions in Sweden, the Swedish healthcare system was never even close to breaking down.
In 2020 the Swedish certainly saw excess mortality while mortality in Denmark remained approximately the same as in previous years (see chart below). But in 2021 the situation is reversed, according to the data. The two professors also point out that in 2020 there was in fact no excess mortality in Sweden among those below the age of 75, which simply confirms how COVID-19 primarily attacks the oldest.
According to the models used to justify harsher restrictions in Denmark, about 30,000 people were expected to have died had Sweden’s strategy been followed. But according to the data, the excess mortality in Sweden over the two years was around 6,000 and in Denmark 3,000, which amounts to the same percentage as the Danish population is about half the Swedish. Thus, the models were off by around 90%. It might be added that this year we see continued excess mortality in Denmark well above that in Sweden (though not all the excess mortality is with COVID-19).
“It often happens,” the authors say, “that individuals, groups or even whole populations get caught in false dichotomies. Those are commonly based on powerful anecdotes and lead to a general acceptance of the validity of one or more claims, which do not stand up to scrutiny.“ While some false beliefs may be harmless, “they can also persist for a long time, even if they have serious negative consequences, both for individuals and whole populations“.
They urge the authorities to make sure that in the future all consequences, including negative effects of restrictions on public health, psychological well-being, education and the economy be considered. For this to happen “it is crucial to have the courage to debate and analyse”.
Thorsteinn Siglaugsson is an economist who lives in Iceland. Find him on his Substack page.
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.
“especially when compared to Sweden”….They still engaged in state democide, and that gave the Lockdown fanatics ammunition to say, they had higher deaths than before!
“He and his ilk have gone very quiet now that there are, indeed, thousands of unnecessary deaths. Among people, many of them distressingly young, who had early cancer symptoms”…..Aye and also heart related issues but even Allison will not go there!
Well I’m on the fence if there even ever was a ‘Covid 19’ virus. We know there wasn’t a pandemic, we’ve got all the data we need to prove that, but was there a lab-made virus? There were certainly incentives to creating the illusion of one and we know that people stood to gain from the world falling for this hugely elaborate con, therefore no wonder those in authority lied to us and committed fraud from start to finish. We’ve masses of evidence of this by now. And I’m sure this is the longest we’ve gone without them wheeling out another ‘scariant’.
But if ‘Covid’ was just the flu repackaged all along, why have we never ever heard of them treating flu previously with safe and cheap drugs such as Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine? They were shown to be effective against ‘Covid’ if given early, after all. So many people in the so-called ‘Freedom Movement’ are still referring to the epic con as a damn ‘pandemic’ though. Surely they should know better by now. These are intelligent people who are experts in their fields. Here’s Mike Yeadon calling out Tess Lawrie for constantly referring to ‘Covid 19’ and early treatment, because he’s adamant it doesn’t exist. By referring to a ‘pandemic’ experts are basically giving legitimacy to what was the biggest and most harmful con of all time, in my view, which plays into the hands of the culprits, which then makes it easier for the likes of Bill Gates et al to keep hinting at ”the next pandemic”, like it’s a bloody bus that’s due!
”Tess knows perfectly well by now that there was no pandemic. No new illness called Covid19.
So I ask her publicly to state why she continues to promote “early treatment” for a non-existent illness.
Now, it’s entirely possible that any agent, used off-label, has some utility. A great many prescription medications have some utility in illnesses that were not the initial illness for which they were developed. I’m not disputing that.
However, I am very troubled by anyone pushing the line that “regulators sought to block the use of lifesaving medications during the covid pandemic”, because there was no pandemic.
I wish I didn’t think this, but I can find no other motive for pushing this line, except to amplify the campaign of fear that the perpetrators intend you to feel, in relation to “future pandemics”.
There aren’t going to be future pandemics. They are a lie. They are a hobgoblin designed to frighten you into allowing the authorities to steal what’s left of your freedoms and all of your medical autonomy.
Tess, please stop doing this.”
https://interestofjustice.substack.com/p/dr-yeadon-asks-dr-tess-lawrie-to
Personally I don’t like to use the word pandemic, and I don’t like articles that use that term. I refer to Lockdowns, plandemic, Covid psyop or pseudo pandemic. Regardless of if it was a new virus, there was no pandemic by the old definition so by calling it a pandemic people are taking part in this implicit manipulation.
Scamdemic is my default.
mine too, it feathered the nests of lots and lots of politicians, academics, clinicians,Pharma, Billionaires, advisors, and of course members of the WEF,UN,and WHO. Organised crime members.
And ‘Quacksines’.
It is mass delusion or psychosis.
Pandemic started life as an adjective meaning “affecting the whole of the population” whereas epidemic means “nearly the whole population”, and was originally qualifed by the thing it described eg pandemic influenza, pandemic delusion but is never absolutely accurate because a lot of us weren.t affected.
Whatever I had in December ’19 was the worst ‘whatever’ I have ever had. I am an asthmatic and have had Influenza ‘A’ five times in my life, I have had pneumonia once and in none of those have I ever been so ill. It ended with me in hospital on oxygen and the Doctor admitting that it was not flu but a bit of a mystery virus. They had seen several people with it. For most it was just a bad cough which felt as though your underpants, or toenails, were coming up; and that was it. For a few, it was very bad.
I had a nasty cold in December 2019 with a strange dry cough, went to Dr because I developed ear ache which the Dr gave my antibiotics that didn’t seem to help. I only lost a few Gym days as I recall. That is how I measure an illness….It is down to how long it keeps me from the old pump!
Mark Harper has just approvingly highlighted “the prime minister’s role in “finding the money to pay for rolling the vaccine out when [Harper] was chancellor”. Apparently there was a “vaccine bounce” in support for the Conservatives in an earlier election as a result. The trouble with bouncing weapons its that they go down as well as up. Weaponising ozone, climate and viruses and other natural phenomena is invariably politically disastrous in the long term, even if it garners a few votes at the time it is launched. All the parties would be safer sticking to adjusting human-created phenomena, such economics, law and migration.
Yes I heard that “vaccine bounce” on the radio, they need to talk with Andrew Bridgen more instead for running out of the chamber whenever he discusses excess deaths.
“The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie.” A. Solzhenitzyn.
For anyone who can still stomach any more Covid-related stuff this new documentary looks good but I haven’t watched it. Epidemic of Fraud came recommended by The Midwestern Doctor ( 2hrs );
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmvwyuV7Uvk&ab_channel=EpidemicofFraudOfficialChannel
8 o’clock on Thursday and the muppets over road are still clapping for carers!
Some people are a lost cause and it’s best to just let them get on with it because they can prove quite the energy vampires. Best to just leave well alone because, given the amount of time that’s elapsed, they would have woken up by now if they were ever going to. Mind, we can say the same for any of the BS narratives that ‘Kool-Aid and the Gang’ are dutifully swallowing whole. Sucks to be them.
However, there’s nowt to say you can’t still laugh at them though. Hell, I would!
Point and laugh!
are you serious? maybe they are just an alternative band having a practice, or just mental.
You’re never serious?
A very lonely time, indeed.
Well, I have found a huge circle of new friends. Those who think. Those who will be free.
It truly is an ill wind if it blows no good…
Not sure about Hutchins, but Pearson never whispered a dickie bird about the ‘vaccines’ during the time it mattered. As for JHB, she couldn’t get enough of the stuff from what I remember. As I’ve said before, if Pearson was kept quiet by the powers that be, then now’s the time to come clean. If, however, she’s just run along with the rest, then she’s got nothing to be proud about. The only one mentioned that did actually openly criticise the whole Covid shit show was Toby Young… who now seems to only say anything that’s within the overton window.
I respect her and Liam immensely for standing strong against lockdown nonsense. Planet Normal is a worthwhile podcast.
I will take my allies where I find them. Allison is a good reporter and Liam’s a credible economist. Play to your strengths.
While I know the jibbyjabbies were shite and the whole political edifice was thoroughly corrupt, due to my ‘credentials’ I’d get nowhere arguing this in the public forums. I’d much rather they bang the drums they’re most qualified to bang.
An army’s not all artillery. You need signals, engineers, infantry and tanks. I’m very happy to have them on our side on much of this subject, and they’re primed to go to bat for a particularly egregious revelation on the topic of the jabs.
Who here is able to say they were right about absolutely everything? My instincts told me the response was just plain wrong. I was wrong on a few things but still mostly correct.
For me, my resistance to jabbination was the stubbornness arising from ‘lockdown is evil, the rules are contrived, masks are dogshit, the data is adulterated and seriously misrepresented by the media. Who the fuck do the govt think they are ordering me about like this?’
The research on the jabbies came afterwards.
Totally agree GHD. It is very disappointing to me that many on our side are far too quick to criticise people who aren’t as far down the rabbit hole as us. It really is something when people think Toby Young is “controlled opposition”. The fact is that people with high profiles like Toby and Alison Pearson can not – must not – travel too far away from the Overton Window. They have to remain credible in the eyes of the establishment at all times if they are going to be effective at shifting the debate our way.
I’d go so far as to say that calling someone out as “controlled opposition” is a type of sceptic virtue signalling.
Plus it is very depressing and strips us of all agency if Toby, Alison Pearson, Julia H-B, Andrew Bridgen, etc etc are all working for the other side. Personally, I think James Delingpole with his “if you’ve heard of them, they are a wrong-un” mantra is the most likely to be controlled opposition with his depressive diet of doom and gloom and nothing-can-be-done-except-pray advice. What could the establishment want more than a depressed opposition advocating doing nothing?
Actually I found Dellingpole refreshing that one (or two) times he was on GB News. He points out some home truths that only Neil Oliver talks about on his (possibly deliberate) broken up Sunday show.
That is what puts me off GBN because they talk about the Tories/Labour like they’re any different. They are part of the same Globalist Uni-party that is dragging us to hell in a handcart. Only difference is the colour of the rosette.
“The fact is that people with high profiles like Toby and Allison Pearson can not – must not – travel too far away from the Overton Window.”
I disagree. You go where the truth takes you. If you know the truth but lie (by omission, in Allison’s case), I think that is unacceptable and a betrayal of the public and their followers.
Your counterargument (I assume) is that journalists exposing a truth that lies beyond the Overton Window (think covid vaccines, Jan 6, 2020 Election Fraud, climate) risk loss of their job or being cancelled from public forums (like the BBC’s Question Time).
My response? People will literally have taken the vaccines because they believed Allison Pearson supported them.
Hi Michael – a couple of points. The “truth” at the edge of the political debate is very much up for grabs especially in an era where we are all in our own echo chambers, so some nuance and discussion is fair enough. Secondly, even where something is “the truth” eg trans women are not women, political commentators have to be careful how they phrase stuff because the left will always be waiting to trip you up. So no one in the world believes trans women are actual women, but some (maybe many) think they should be treated as actual women. The left, who are so much better than us with words shorten this to trans women are women knowing this will produce outrage and controversy and allow them to cancel people all over the place. This only works of course when they have the power, which it seems they do.
My resistance to the jabbination was the same as yours. But one of the whole issues for me was also freedom of choice. If you want to have it, fill your boots. But don’t tell me I have to (especially when the logic seemed to be ‘mine doesn’t work, that’s why you have to have it’).
“Conspiracy theorist” is one of those things that people call you, like “Terf” and “Anti-Vaxxer” and you’re meant to feel offended, because, reasons.
I no longer accept the snide term “conspiracy theorist” and whenever it is levelled at me I swiftly correct the offender and tell them “no. Conspiracy Realist.”
The people who call you a “conspiracy theorist” are “conspiracy deniers”!
Journalist B returns insult to Journalist A.
What would be beneficial is more investigative journalism to answer the question she asks twice “FOR WHAT?”.
Those responsible may have become complacent and their perceived level of personal threat needs to be increased.
I do enjoy your last sentence.
I seem to have heard this phrase before. I shall ask my sage friend who was there in 2020. Never forget.
All I would say to the accusers is, if you ever wondered how you would have behaved in Germany during the 30’and 40’s look how you behaved during the scandemic and you will have your answer. We have more “Good germans” in this country than those who resist, my trust in my fellow citizen has been wiped out having been on the receiving end of their “goodness”
I can only sadly
agree.
At the risk of repeating myself again I cannot forget Alison Pearson on the Telegraph’s Planet Nornal supporting Vaccine Passports. Sorry but that’s unforgivable. For all her “wasn’t I wonderful” antics you wonder how long her ilk would take to flip back to when we’re told to lockdown, mask up and compulsory get jabbed again.
Hi Epi – I don’t know whether Alison Pearson changed her mind, but on Planet Normal 18 Feb 2021 she says re covid passports that she is “on the fence”. Bad enough maybe, but not supporting them as such. This was also at a time when she and Liam Halligan were 100% pro-vaccine because they (like many at that time) trusted scientists and the so-called experts. I bet she isn’t so trusting now – and nor are we.
I googled it and the only reference I found was her saying that the passports were illogical. Happy to be corrected if somebody can find an article where she was in favour.
Those using HCQ – it seems to be assumed that the disease they were treating was C19. Was it?
Another legacy is that people feel empowered to wear masks whilst breaking the law, as evidenced by the blockading of a migrant detainee bus yesterday.
The police were seemingly unconcerned by these deliberate attempts to obscure their identities.
The “Conspiracy” was NOT a Theory & teh ONLY Conspiracy, was By Politicians AGAINT WE THE PEOPLE