While Wallace-Wells is skeptical of Swedish claims that the country had the lowest excess mortality in Europe-he says the data set is imperfect and is not adjusted for demographics-it’s clear Sweden performed better than many lockdown nations. Just how successful Sweden’s approach was is still subject to debate. And though Wallace-Wells seems to begrudge Anders Tegnell-the architect of Sweden’s policy-taking a “victory lap through the media,” it’s worth pointing out that the epidemiologist received death threats for his pandemic response, which looks better with each passing week. The Grey Lady reported in 2020 that “Sweden Has Become the World's Cautionary Tale” for its Covid response, and the Times was joined by a chorus of media outlets (and President Donald Trump) who alleged Sweden had “botched the pandemic” and amplified the virus. Lowest excess deaths in Europe over 2020 to 2022 goes to … Sweden, the one country that did not panic and toss out all wisdom. This might not sound like much of a concession, but it is.

But he does concede that “it’s hard to argue on the basis of Sweden’s epidemiological experience that its policy course was a disastrous one.” Times writer David Wallace-Wells doesn’t accept claims that Sweden-which drew intense criticism for refusing to go into lockdown in 2020-had the lowest excess death rate in Europe, with just 3.3 percent more deaths than expected, the lowest percentage among OECD countries. “How Did No-Mandate Sweden End Up With Such an Average Pandemic?” the headline asked. A couple of weeks ago, The New York Times published an article that would have been unthinkable a few years ago.

System collapse martha wells