Now Might be a Good Time to Check in on the Lockdown Control Group
Sweden was Right
At a time when the CDC is backtracking on mask mandates and the President is threatening more lockdowns, now might be a good time to check in to see how the lockdown control group is doing. The fact remains, lockdowns were never the standard for pandemic response. It's why the WHO's latest pandemic plan strictly recommended against anything of the sort. And luckily for us there was at least one country on earth that basically followed that plan, and rejected Chinese style lockdowns: Sweden.
Isn't it funny? You never hear anything about Sweden these days.
Sweden never had a lockdown. They never closed primary schools, they never shut down businesses and even at the peak of cases this last winter they had comparatively few restrictions of any sort. They also never had a mask mandate and they had very low mask usage throughout the pandemic.
Given all of this, and given what "The Science'' tells us, they must have suffered a massive Covid death toll, right? Nope, they had fewer Covid deaths than the European average and nearly no excess mortality for the 19/20 and 20/21 seasons.
Plus having never suffered the pain of lockdown, their economy is in better shape than the rest of Europe, they didn't take on massive public debt, and the citizens in the county still generally trust their public health establishment. At a time when there are massive protests in Europe over vaccine mandates, and repeated lockdowns in countries like Australia still trying to keep the virus at bay, Sweden is as close to normal as you can find on the planet.
Today Sweden has very few cases, and essentially no new Covid deaths on a daily basis. This is even as Sweden still has a lower Covid vaccination rate than all but 10 states in the US. They aren't losing their minds over "Delta" like the rest of the planet. They stuck to the plan and are proof ( alongside Florida) that the lockdowns didn't work and were not worth the cost.
It's why you never hear Sweden discussed these days. Let's hope that changes, and fast. Because Covid will be back this fall and I'm afraid there will be calls for lockdowns again. I know Sweden won't be locking down and I pray California won't either...
Anyway 0 and 2...