It’s probably worth all of us with different views about lockdowns and restrictions bearing in mind that Sweden is not a control group for the rest of the world

It’s probably worth all of us with different views about lockdowns and restrictions bearing in mind that Sweden is not a control group for the rest of the world, and the rest of the world is not a control group for Sweden. The Swedish authorities never suggested that lockdowns wouldn’t work in controlling the pandemic, in fact they acknowledged that they definitely would work in the short term; their core assertions were that the Swedish population would not be able to sustain involuntary restrictions until better treatments or a vaccine arrived, and that the harms caused by restrictions would be a net negative for their society. The jury is still out on those decisions, but they are rational. In fact we’ll probably never know who chose the optimal policy mix to cope with the pandemic, and as a result we should give those with differing views an awful lot of slack as they try and negotiate it with limited resources and foresight (i.e. as humans). For now, let’s just enjoy this good news about the people in Sweden at face value–we need it!