To (quickly) answer a few points on my Sweden column in the Telegraph - its strategy was to minimise all deaths. This meant the ones counted daily (Covid) plus indirect deaths, counted later. On Covid deaths, it's about the European average...
...by avoiding lockdown, Sweden sought to minimise (long-term) collateral damage on society & health. On total 'excess death' last year, it's a bit lower than European average...
...but the age of those who died is also a factor. Lockdowns risk deterring use of health service for cancer, heart disease etc and leading to excess death amongst the under-65s. Deaths in this age group declined in Sweden last year, but rose in UK...
...it's impossible to say if this was a lockdown effect, but to Swedes it's part of a jigsaw puzzle. The below shows excess death last year, adjusted for age....
...Sweden tolerates a higher Covid level than countries pursuing a strategy of suppression. This means Sweden comes out badly in Covid league tables: NB this one on current Covid levels...
...But Anders Tegnell, Sweden's state epidemiologist, points to Sweden's lower position in Covid deaths...
...Tegnell makes this point in an SvD interview today. He says vaccination has broken the relationship between high case numbers and high death numbers... svd.se/de-har-hoga-do…
...but Tegnell also says it will take months - or maybe years - for the whole picture to become clear. This is NOT to say Sweden was right and UK wrong. Just that there's more to this story than a Covid league table.
Here's my column:- telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/1…
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.