How Much Better Would The US's COVID Results Be If We Had Followed Sweden?

A compelling new estimate of just how much worse we did with lockdowns and masks

COVID extremists have spent most of the past four years conveniently and purposefully ignoring the existence of Sweden.

Now that most pandemic restrictions have faded, it’s easy to forget that Sweden took an enormous risk in the early days of COVID. Instead of the lockdowns, mask mandates, social isolation, closed schools and business restrictions that most other countries disturbingly imposed in lockstep, Sweden stayed mostly open, with no masking and as little disruption as possible.

The potential risks of their decision were not that they would suffer mass death on an unprecedented scale, or allow their hospitals to become overwhelmed with COVID-infected patients. It was the risk of demonization from a political-media-university class that demanded compliance with the fanatical zealotry of COVID maximalist policies laughably labeled “The Science.”

Predictably, that demonization commenced almost immediately. Media hit pieces and misinformation proliferated rapidly. Politicians inaccurately claimed Sweden was a disaster area, with even worse results sure to come.

Interestingly though, many of those criticisms faded from view as time progressed in 2021.

Then even the World Health Organization was forced to admit that Sweden mostly got it right.

It raises the question of how much better off the rest of the world would have been if they would have followed Sweden’s example. Thankfully, new research has provided an answer to that question, and further eroded any possible justification for blindly obeying The Science™.