We all remember what happened last year when Sweden’s unflappable state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell announced there wouldn’t be a lockdown. His “trust-based” approach was roundly denounced – not only in the media, but also by some ‘experts’.
As Johan Anderberg notes, Sweden’s pandemic strategy was variously described as “deadly folly” (Guardian), “a disaster” (Time magazine) and “the world’s cautionary tale” (New York Times).
Since the end of the first wave, however, Sweden has been gradually creeping down the list of countries by official Covid death rate. As of 16th October, it was ranked 52nd – well below the European average.
Yet this actually understates how well Sweden has done. As I and others have consistently argued, number of Covid deaths per million is not the best measure of the pandemic’s impact on mortality. Far better is age-adjusted excess mortality.
Thanks to an ONS report published on Thursday, we now have age-adjusted excess mortality numbers for most of the countries in Europe, covering the entire period from January 2020 to June 2021.
As an aside, the report clearly states: “The best way of comparing the mortality impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic internationally is by looking at all-cause mortality compared with the five-year average.”
So what do the new numbers show? Sweden has had negative excess mortality. In other words, the level of mortality between January 2020 and June 2021 was lower than the five-year average. If this isn’t a vindication of Anders Tegnell’s approach, I don’t know what is.
The table below (taken from the ONS report) shows age-adjusted excess mortality from 3rd January 2020 to 18th June 2021. As you can see, Sweden is 8th from bottom, with a value of –2.3%.
Interestingly, the bottom six are all small, geographically peripheral countries (three islands, plus Denmark, Norway and Finland). This suggests that geography and border controls were key, and that lockdowns – in the absence of effective border controls – didn’t make much difference.
The top seven are all in Eastern Europe, which again suggests that some geographic factor is at work. What may account for high excess mortality in these countries is the fact that all of them missed the first wave, and hence had even bigger epidemics in the winter. Official Covid death rates are shown below:
If true, this would constitute strong evidence against the House of Commons’ report, which concluded that Britain should have tried to suppress the first wave. As I’ve noted before, this approach always carried the risk of creating an even bigger epidemic in the winter.
In any event, Anders Tegnell can give himself a well-deserved pat on the back. His country kept civil liberties largely intact, and ended up with one of Europe’s lowest death tolls. Well done, professor.
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.
It doesn’t seem long ago that it was ‘just a mask’ to ‘reinvigorate the economy’
Good point – and, again, a factual article/time-line detailing the key stages and quotations of the shit-show (and their contradictions) would be extremely useful if anyone was up to it.
Surprised there’s not such a thing on LS
It was baby steps towards authoritarianism.
As masks were introduced just as covids sank to a record low to give the whole shitshow legs so vaccine Passports are being introduced as the ‘pandemic ‘ enters the usual spring/summer nadir of actual cases.
” Got to keep the show on the road folks !”
And to give ‘confidence’ to those who were and still are brainwashed by the Government propoganda machine.
This is why i said that the petition that came out a while ago asking the government to not impose vaccine based discrimination was badly worded. It left a massive loophole for government to say that they don’t plan on doing such a thing and instead rely on private companies to do the discriminating. It should have demanded that government ban vaccine based discrimination for everyone, private or public.
Not that it would have mattered. As we’ve seen, not only does the government like to say they have no plans to do anything, then two weeks later reveal plans for doing that very same thing, but they also have no interest in making it a criminal act for a public official to mislead the people.
These passaports and the way they’re enforced are violations of human rights. No person shall be forced to undergo medical procedures against their will in exchange for their rights.
Enforced vaccinations on employees even if they “consent” under duress, could be regarded as “assault and battery” and against their human rights. Law or fiction are on to this: https://www.laworfiction.com/2021/03/no-jab-no-pay-a-criminal-offence/
Legal action must be used by everyone encountering discrimination.
I don’t think assault and battery applies. No one is physically forcing you to take the vaccine, by assaulting you, tying you up, and forcing the needle in your arm. It would be assault and battery to be phisically stripped of your clothes and forced to wear something else, but office dress codes are pretty normal and accepted everywhere.
Another angle is needed here. Forcing someone to undergo a medical procedure against their will by threathening them with dismissal or pay cuts or with the removal of their rights is a breach of human rights. I don’t think these people realise the consequences of permitting this. If it’s ok to tell your employee “do this medical procedure or I fire you” then what’s next? “Get double D breast implants or I fire you?” “Get a nose job or I fire you?”
I feel like we are all going to have to try and sue our employers so we have enough money to clothe and feed ourselves in the future!
This is really getting me down. The past few weeks have been rough. I’m losing hope. Even my parents are fully onboard with everything, despite having told them repeatedly the manipulation of statistics, the evidence against lockdowns etc. Yet still their latest talking point is about Brazil and how ignorant Bolsonaro is for not locking down, and talking about how everyone there is dropping dead. I’ve literally explained to them dozens of times that places like Sweden or no-lockdown states are fairing as well or better than lockdown areas, and that PCR positive deaths is not a reliable metric etc. I’ve been over and over it with them, and they seem to listen. And then the next day they come out with the same bullshit. I am so sick of this.
Scotty, beam me the fuck up.
Don’t give up – I am hopeful that someone somewhere will put a stop to this madness. One thing is clear, we must never concede!
It’s not someone else’s responsibility to do so, it’s ours.
Had a lot of trouble with my father:
“So you believe these statistics?”
“Yes! Of course!”
“Then you trust the government?”
“No! They’re a bunch of liars and thieves!”
“So whre do you think the statistic are coming from…?”
But he’s coming around after the Romanian government has started beating people in the streets for next to no reason at all.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4AhNuDaKPL0
Other countries have picked up on the behaviour of the British police, and they’re not impressed.
This is nothing new. It’s just on a larger scale. Both the police and the government have been abusing their powers for decades in an effort to remove political dissidents. Tommy Robinson has been in their target for around a decade, being arrested and jailed on numerous occassions for calling out the ignorance of the authorities.
This is the country that the British public has built. A public that prefers a safe cage to freedom. And now that same public is surprised that it found itself in a cage.
Truly appalling but not unexpected. The lack of ‘policing’ of the police is the source of their gestapo actions. See the articles https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/whistleblower-police-priti-patel-protest-b1825386.html
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/full-review-underway-police-conduct-5258674
https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/met-police-allegations-female-officers-raped-by-colleague-938289?ITO=msn
The incidents are not few and far between they are commonplace and yet the government wish to hand more powers to them. Shameful.
Yet our ‘leaders’ lecture others around the world on human rights, democracy and ignore their own transgressions. Dominic Raab only recently claimed that ‘democracy is in retreat around the world’ whilst forgetting to mention he was well able to prove this by showing the world how people are forced to live and how they are treated in the UK in 2021 under the BoJo despot government.
https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/foreign-secretary-warns-democracy-retreat-across-globe/
Please don’t be distressed, ‘keep calm and carry on’ applies here, our confidence is our strength
you are far from alone, there are like-minded people out there
“Yet still their latest talking point is about Brazil and how ignorant Bolsonaro is for not locking down, and talking about how everyone there is dropping dead. ”
Isn’t that one of the countries where the initial vaccine clinical trials took place??
Plus: do they know if Brazil has a comprehensive social welfare system, or if the government can afford to pay people to stay at home for a year? Or if the people don’t work, they don’t eat?
They can hear you but they’re not listening. It’s effectively the same as explaining quadratic equations to your dog. I’ve had the same experience.
There are many of us who have family members who have had their brains amputated by the propaganda. I too am sick and tired of the bullshite. My husband has continued to work at his place of work throughout this plandemic. He travels on public transport to London and I have managed to convince some at least that it is not the zombie plague. Do not despair. Try getting your parents to listen to Planet Normal or something that strikes a tone between the totally sceptical and the ‘end of the world’. It may help them understand a bit better. Wish I could say more as I too sometimes feel like giving up. Writing on here and reading others comments is a big help. Wish you well.
I know, my husband has tried over and over AND over to patiently explain so much to his parents but it’s like they’re under a spell. They’ve taken nothing on board but they relate in wonder everything their MSM had told them! It’s either they are impervious to thinking outside the frame or they’re in complete denial. It’s actually affecting him now but they don’t seem to be bothered.
I think Carl Sagan has a point.
So I have had my liberty taken away by a ‘source’
Why the constant reportage giving the doom and gloom govt side with no mention of Law or Fictions legal action, the Nuremberg Code, the illegality of coercion to have a mexical procedure etc.
More balanced reporting would be appreciated.
Yes – an article clearly examining the pedigree, saliency and status of international documents, treaties and laws on this critical subject would be very interesting, given the clear attempt to subvert basic ethical standards as the world turns fascist.
Can you send this directly to the LS email, please Rick H – the editorial team said before that they do not generally look at comments unless someone flags one up for an alleged violation of the protocols.
I was thinking the same. Not a good look for LS. Toby please take note.
It sounds like a cop out by this Junta. Washing their hands like Pontius Pilate. If a person was rejected for a job because of their skin colour, there would be outrage Likewise anyone suffering discrimination for non vaxxing should have similar access to the law.
It’s sadly ironic because the West used to endlessly berate various dictators for using states of emergency to nullify all other laws and govern by fiat.
Now Western leaders want in on the fun.
“Vaccination passports could be imposed on the public for less than a year, according to plans being drawn up by Downing Street to head off a Tory revolt.”
Sure. Just like “three weeks to flatten the curve.”
On that basis, these “passports” will be for the best of our lives.
“Ministers are reportedly “resigned” to the fact that some bosses will enforce “no jab, no job” policies. ”
Are they resigned to the court cases on the grounds of discrimination, and the forcing of an experimental, unlicensed vaccine upon employees, against human rights.
We are currently being ‘governed’ by some very weak and inept people who have been handed too much authoritarian power but do not know how to use the power or behave themselves in a fair, honest and proper fashion. By ‘resigning’ themselves to the fact that some bosses will enforce ‘no jab, no job’ they are just emulating the same strategy of no responsibilty no accountability displayed by the furloughed MPs who refuse to vote against them. The message is It’s not their fault if they are able to lay the blame at the door of others. The same strategy applies to their statement of ‘following the science’. Who me? No it’s them. Not my fault.
I wonder if you could sue your employer in the event of vaccine damage under this so-called no jab, no job policy?
Why not. It should be actively encouraged.
Exactly. If people are being forced to vaccinate to get or keep a job, surely employers will have to have insurance in case of harm, which would have to include cover for lifetime severe injury. I wonder how much that would cost, given that the effects are currently unknown? Would it even be offered? Certainly the employer would find that some had to. be exempted. The big cost would be if any embryos were affected and needed life care.
Anyone required to take a jab would do well to write to their employer making it clear that they were only doing so because the employer was making it a condition of employment. And keep the letter,
Pharmaceutical companies are immune from prosecution so insurers will not cover the risk. People need to check their health cover.
Wasn’t all this sort of thing supposedly the reason we went to war in Iraq? To free the people?
Perhaps employees should state in witing to their employer that they’re willing to have the jab provided the employer signs a liability form stating that should they suffer an adverse reaction the employer will compensate them up to the amount of £2,000,000 depending on the severity.
If they aren’t refusing the vaccine presumably they couldn’t be fired?
There are various templates available online for people to use to conditionally ‘accept’ some of these tyrannies, with the conditions being impossible for those insisting on the tyranny to meet since there is no evidence to back up the tyranny. For example, an independent travel agent has templates for mask-wearing, ‘tests’, and ‘vaccines’ in the file section of her facebook page. The more of us who use these the better, to stop the madness! https://www.facebook.com/groups/335393567475949/files
“The source said they would not legally be able to stop companies from demanding them as a condition of employment.”
Um, I thought we had this whole “Brexit” thing, the point of which was to “take back control”?
Now we’re supposed to believe that, although the Government has the power to suspend all our civil liberties, but for some unspecified reason it is unable to prohibit companies from discriminating against people who don’t get the jab.
I agree employment law is pretty draconian these days so the idea that they couldn’t just rule it out as discrimination is laughable.
The companies that are planning to impose the restrictions clearly ignore potential future health problems in the staffers post-experimental procedure. Or is it going to be zero contract furlough or some other similar scheme?
Someone is gaming this clever. If the government made a case to do this, it attracts all the legal forces againt it, one case to fight. Let individual employers do it and there are numerous, thousands potentially of cases to fight. No-one has the ability to do that. So if they lose one or two, unless the wording of the judgement is very specific it will not be something useful in other cases.
So this way the no jab no job is brought in, and of course its impossible to reverse in 12 months even if anyone wanted to.
Its very difficult to believe there is anything benign behind all this. With mRNA jabs given to the majority under 60 yrs including children, the Genetic Passports ( because that will be what they are) can be made to do anything with annual boosters. A little genetic tweak here and all women are made infertile, the regulators have already given a clear pass for all ‘new variant’ boosters.
World domination over everyone. And the majority are cheering it on.
Agreed. The amount of people who think this is the door to freedom is incredible. They are too stupid for words.
Disgusting, but not surprising. I knew from the start that the Govt doesn’t have the balls to actually make vaccinations mandatory, but would make them mandatory by “stealth” – stealth which is as obvious as a blackbird on bedsheet.
I put in a long submission to the “consultation” last week, which was obviously a complete sham.
I’m now going to email my employer and tell them that I would strongly oppose any attempt to impose vaccine passports as a condition of employment or attendance. I suggest that everyone else do this too. To employers, local pubs, other local businesses…
This should be a time of hope and relief, as more and more at-risk people are being offered vaccinations, and the deathrate (yes, I know it’s only a ‘deathrate’) goes down and down. Why does the Govt turn _everything_ into a disgusting power-grab? I feel I’m living in a country which has lost its collective mind.
Come on. This isn’t about a virus. Once vulnerable people, the 95% are vaccinated, it’s over. The rest don’t need it and yet they are pressing on. Because the end goal hasn’t been reached. They don’t trust you to go along with their policies so they must break your resistance. It’s that simple.
No one should be coerced. What next compulsory flu jabs too. All those employers should be sued for discrimination.
I think that’s the plan.
Ironic that the mass flu vaccination is correlated with a massive spike in covid “infections”. What if the covid vax causes a major increase in flu cases? Then they’re home and dry. Double kerching!
The mass flu vaccination programme opened up the vulnerable to ‘Antibody dependant enhancement’ the next time that person encountered any coronavirus, be it flu, a cold, or ‘covid’. Massive overreaction of the immune system leading to a cytokine storm, huge inflammation in any / all major organs, clotting issues – especially in the lungs, and boom – there’s your massive spike. Add an even bigger ‘covid jab’ mass campaign, keep everyone locked up for a few more weeks/months to distance the carnage from the date of the jab, then sit back after we’re ‘released’ and watch as the next ‘wave’ of ADE occurs, no doubt blamed on a new ‘variant’ – and no doubt blamed on the ‘anti-vaxxers’ … so along come the ‘boosters’ and the new ‘flu’ season jabs, and the merry-go-round continues. It’s the perfect business model for profits for pharma companies, with extra power and control for our totalitarian govt. Why have so few people joined the dots yet? Instead they’re falling over themselves to keep us locked up, get us jabbed, carrying identity cards for a virus with a survivability rate of well over 99%! Though that may sadly reduce due to the huge ADE death spikes we can expect to see in the next flu season .
Could the whole populace go on strike? One for all and all for one kinda thing
So if some nasty side affects appear in a few years time those same companies will be compensating those individuals who were forced to get the jab?????
Some of the more immediate side effects can be pretty unpleasant. If companies were forced to shell out a couple of grand each time an employee was hospitalised or laid up for a few days it might make them think again.
This wank goverment love a strap line. ‘Sunset clause’ thats a joke. Once implemented it will never be repealed.
If the government doesn’t like something it can and does change the law. The truth is that the government is happy to allow employers to insist on no-jab no-job so that the policy can be expanded once people have grown used to the idea.
So …. nothing to certify the sane ones amongst us who simply take vitamins C & D, zinc and quercetin, and look after our own immune systems and bodies, thus saving the NHS a fortune? Oh I forgot . . . we don’t bring any money to Big Pharma and their shareholders, do we.
So when is Boris going to start handing out the UKs answer to the free ‘Obama ‘phone’ for the sizeable chunk of the population who does not have a mobile or have one that is not capable of running the app?
Look none of this is acceptable. By not resisting the idea you are condoning their action.
Oh, they are resigned are they? What could they possibly do??? Perhaps they could take a clue from Ron De Santis are outlaw such medical coercion, contrary as it is to treaties that the UK is signatory to?
Remember Apartheid?
How is this different? Jobs for whites, no jobs for blacks, segregated football stadiums, segregated shopping areas, segregated schools, buses segregated, taxis for blacks, taxis for whites.
Remember Apartheid?
How is this different? Jobs for whites, no jobs for blacks, segregated football stadiums, segregated shopping areas, segregated schools, buses segregated, taxis for blacks, taxis for whites.