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The COVID-19 death spike in Sweden was about as deadly as the 2009 Swine Flu outbreak: https://swprs.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/sweden-monthly-deaths-1851.

The COVID-19 death spike in Sweden was about as deadly as the 2009 Swine Flu outbreak: https://swprs.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/sweden-monthly-deaths-1851.jpg https://swprs.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/sweden-monthly-... And that's only after a very weak 2018/2019 flu seasons - with one of the lowest death spikes on record. Sweden and many other Western countries also have many more elderly people in 2020 than in 2009: https://www.populationpyramid.net/sweden/2020/ https://www.populationpyramid.net/sweden/2020/ With there being about 20% more 80-84 year old men (prime death age and gender) in 2020 than in 2009. Scientific research comparing Norway and Sweden concludes that basically COVID deaths in Sweden are mortality displacement from 2018/2019 and 2021: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.11.20229708v1 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.11.20229708v... What's most interesting is why this pandemic has been so heavily politicised and publicised, almost precisely at the timing of the 2020 American election, as the American economy was booming, and with a major aftermath being that many of the world's wealthiest people are now even wealthier due to rampant money printing. Back to Brazil specifically, the major factor here is obesity, which has increased to 19.5% of the population from just 13.7% a decade ago: https://www.statista.com/statistics/781305/share-adult-people-obese-brazil/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/781305/share-adult-peopl... The correct response to COVID should have been to limit sugar (for obesity), and coal and oil burning (for air pollution). COVID is basically a once-a-decade flu variant, but our population is now much fatter, sicker, and older this decade.

sharken 6y ago
One of the restrictions is ironically enough to close down gyms. Am still waiting for a reopening of gyms here in Denmark.
- eecks 6y ago
  In Ireland we're still locked down to within 5km of our homes, you have to work from home, not allowed to meet socially, no restaurants, shops or gyms, police fines are in force for breaking the rules
  - sharken 6y ago
    Those are some harsh restrictions indeed, given that Ireland seems like a country where you live life to it's fullest, it's an almost unreal level of restrictions. As a comparison Denmark and Ireland have almost identical number of vaccinations and population, so it seems like Ireland is being way too cautious.
laurencerowe 6y ago
> COVID is basically a once-a-decade flu variant, but our population is now much fatter, sicker, and older this decade. This is just untrue. Look at the excess mortality rates across various countries: https://www.ft.com/content/a2901ce8-5eb7-4633-b89c-cbdf5b386938 https://www.ft.com/content/a2901ce8-5eb7-4633-b89c-cbdf5b386... Without the lockdown (which kept hospitals from overflowing) we would have been looking at similar death rates to those in Ecuador/Bolivia/Peru where 69%/72%/97% more people died than usual last year (vs 19% in the US and 16% in Sweden.) Only 15-20% of people in the US have been infected, and almost half a million excess deaths so far. With the lockdown, weekly excess deaths have been double a bad influenza year in the Netherlands, https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/27/2/20-2999_article https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/27/2/20-2999_article The infection fatality rate for Covid-19 has been estimated at 10x that of seasonal flu. https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20201030/covid-19-infection-fatality-ratio-is-about-one-point-15-percent https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20201030/covid-19-infection-...
- ArkanExplorer 6y ago
  2020 deaths in Germany were 985,145, only 4.85% higher than 2019, and only 3.2% higher than 2018. In line with the comment above - sicker and older population and weaker flu season. https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Gesellschaft-Umwelt/Bevoelkerung/Sterbefaelle-Lebenserwartung/Tabellen/sonderauswertung-sterbefaelle.html?nn=23768 https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Gesellschaft-Umwelt/Bevoel... Please find us the total deaths for 2020 vs 2019 and 2018, for Brazil and other non-lockdown countries. The FT article cherry-picks the data, comparing inconsistent parts of the year. There's basically just too much noise when looking at weekly deaths.
  - Barrin92 6y ago
    >2020 deaths in Germany were 985,145, only 4.85% higher than 2019, and only 3.2% higher than 2018. because we locked down the country, twice. (now for a third time in 2021). It's nonsensical to compare flu deaths (which we don't mitigate) to covid deaths, when we shut down social life for a good chunk of the year. The only people who are still in some sort of political or ideological mindset are people who make these comparisons.

sharken 6y ago

One of the restrictions is ironically enough to close down gyms. Am still waiting for a reopening of gyms here in Denmark.

eecks 6y ago
In Ireland we're still locked down to within 5km of our homes, you have to work from home, not allowed to meet socially, no restaurants, shops or gyms, police fines are in force for breaking the rules
- sharken 6y ago
  Those are some harsh restrictions indeed, given that Ireland seems like a country where you live life to it's fullest, it's an almost unreal level of restrictions. As a comparison Denmark and Ireland have almost identical number of vaccinations and population, so it seems like Ireland is being way too cautious.

laurencerowe 6y ago

> COVID is basically a once-a-decade flu variant, but our population is now much fatter, sicker, and older this decade. This is just untrue. Look at the excess mortality rates across various countries: https://www.ft.com/content/a2901ce8-5eb7-4633-b89c-cbdf5b386938 https://www.ft.com/content/a2901ce8-5eb7-4633-b89c-cbdf5b386... Without the lockdown (which kept hospitals from overflowing) we would have been looking at similar death rates to those in Ecuador/Bolivia/Peru where 69%/72%/97% more people died than usual last year (vs 19% in the US and 16% in Sweden.) Only 15-20% of people in the US have been infected, and almost half a million excess deaths so far. With the lockdown, weekly excess deaths have been double a bad influenza year in the Netherlands, https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/27/2/20-2999_article https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/27/2/20-2999_article The infection fatality rate for Covid-19 has been estimated at 10x that of seasonal flu. https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20201030/covid-19-infection-fatality-ratio-is-about-one-point-15-percent https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20201030/covid-19-infection-...

ArkanExplorer 6y ago
2020 deaths in Germany were 985,145, only 4.85% higher than 2019, and only 3.2% higher than 2018. In line with the comment above - sicker and older population and weaker flu season. https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Gesellschaft-Umwelt/Bevoelkerung/Sterbefaelle-Lebenserwartung/Tabellen/sonderauswertung-sterbefaelle.html?nn=23768 https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Gesellschaft-Umwelt/Bevoel... Please find us the total deaths for 2020 vs 2019 and 2018, for Brazil and other non-lockdown countries. The FT article cherry-picks the data, comparing inconsistent parts of the year. There's basically just too much noise when looking at weekly deaths.
- Barrin92 6y ago
  >2020 deaths in Germany were 985,145, only 4.85% higher than 2019, and only 3.2% higher than 2018. because we locked down the country, twice. (now for a third time in 2021). It's nonsensical to compare flu deaths (which we don't mitigate) to covid deaths, when we shut down social life for a good chunk of the year. The only people who are still in some sort of political or ideological mindset are people who make these comparisons.