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Sweden's excess deaths look no worse than any other country [1]. [1] https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/04/16/tracking-covid-19-excess-deaths-across

Sweden's excess deaths look no worse than any other country [1]. [1] https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/04/16/tracking-covid-19-excess-deaths-across-countries https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/04/16/tracking...

gpderetta 6y ago
it is not worse than the worse hit countries in europe, but significantly worse than its neighbouring countries [1] [1] https://www.euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps/ https://www.euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps/
- briefcomment 6y ago
  Two points, in defense of Sweden 1. If we believe the flatten the curve rhetoric, Sweden is behind the worst of it, and Norway, Finland, and Denmark will see slightly elevated excess deaths for a while, bringing the disparity closer. 2. Sweden may have staved off the some of the economic losses of locking down. We still need more time to see what happens and evaluate the above. One thing to note is that Sweden's excess death percentage is by no means a catastrophe compared to other countries. It's a data point of what the ceiling for mortality may look like if a country does nothing. One other important thing to note, the percentage of non-covid excess deaths seems much higher for countries that lock down compared to Sweden for example [1]. It's possible that lockdowns spread covid deaths out over time instead of decreasing them, while creating non-covid excess deaths that you otherwise wouldn't have. [1] https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/04/16/tracking-covid-19-excess-deaths-across-countries https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/04/16/tracking...
  - greedo 6y ago
    The entire purpose of using excess deaths is to account for the discrepancy in the way different countries attribute cause of death. So referencing "the percentage of non-covid excess deaths seems much higher for countries that lock down compared to Sweden for example" is nonsensical.
    - briefcomment 6y ago
      I think it would be hard to designate deaths so differently that we couldn't draw some insight from those graphs, but in case they are designated that differently, the only thing we can do is to keep an eye on excess deaths for Sweden and its neighbors, and see if Sweden has a consistency lower excess death proportion over the next several months.

gpderetta 6y ago

it is not worse than the worse hit countries in europe, but significantly worse than its neighbouring countries [1] [1] https://www.euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps/ https://www.euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps/

briefcomment 6y ago
Two points, in defense of Sweden 1. If we believe the flatten the curve rhetoric, Sweden is behind the worst of it, and Norway, Finland, and Denmark will see slightly elevated excess deaths for a while, bringing the disparity closer. 2. Sweden may have staved off the some of the economic losses of locking down. We still need more time to see what happens and evaluate the above. One thing to note is that Sweden's excess death percentage is by no means a catastrophe compared to other countries. It's a data point of what the ceiling for mortality may look like if a country does nothing. One other important thing to note, the percentage of non-covid excess deaths seems much higher for countries that lock down compared to Sweden for example [1]. It's possible that lockdowns spread covid deaths out over time instead of decreasing them, while creating non-covid excess deaths that you otherwise wouldn't have. [1] https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/04/16/tracking-covid-19-excess-deaths-across-countries https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/04/16/tracking...
- greedo 6y ago
  The entire purpose of using excess deaths is to account for the discrepancy in the way different countries attribute cause of death. So referencing "the percentage of non-covid excess deaths seems much higher for countries that lock down compared to Sweden for example" is nonsensical.
  - briefcomment 6y ago
    I think it would be hard to designate deaths so differently that we couldn't draw some insight from those graphs, but in case they are designated that differently, the only thing we can do is to keep an eye on excess deaths for Sweden and its neighbors, and see if Sweden has a consistency lower excess death proportion over the next several months.