By: Greg Staley
Written On: 2021-07-08
Were Australians rewarded for their “sacrifice?” If Canada had remained opened without a mask mandate like Sweden what would’ve happened? Did our lockdowns prevent people from ending up in hospital? Did our restrictions prevent excess deaths like our politicians and media doctors have so often claimed? Were all of the business closures, cancelled surgeries, overdoses and suicides that resulted from these measures worth it? Did these measures save more lives than they took?
Cases per million
Taking data from Our World in Data which is run by the University of Oxford, we begin to see certain patterns emerge. Below is a chart of confirmed Covid-19 cases per million people. Although Sweden has higher cases much of the time – having a lot of cases isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The greater concern is hospitalizations and deaths that result from the cases and as you will see from the data – Sweden is doing just fine in that metric.
Number of Covid patients in hospital per million
Much more important than the number of cases or infections is the metric of hospitalizations, ICU visits and deaths per million people. This is where we begin to see the pro-lockdown narrative that is being fed to Canadians begin to break down in my opinion.
Based on the latest data, Sweden is currently experiencing fewer hospitalizations per million people than Canada, Italy, the United Kingdom and even the United States which now many parts of are completely Covid restriction free.
Although Sweden has had periods of time when they’ve had more Covid patients in hospital per million people – overall Sweden’s Covid response has proved to keep up with the likes of other nations who chose lockdowns instead of targeted measures.
Number of Covid ICU patients per million
This to me is where Canada’s narrative of locking down to prevent hospital overrun falls on it’s face. Not to mention the fact that the Lancet reported that full lockdowns didn’t work in August of 2020 but I digress. The paper wrote that “Rapid border closures, full lockdowns, and wide-spread testing were not associated with COVID-19 mortality per million people.”
Below we can see that although Sweden experienced an initial surge that Canada didn’t but overall the trends overlap themselves and Sweden is currently outperforming Canada when it comes to less Covid patients in ICU per million people. This doesn’t exactly coincide well with the current narrative that these restrictions and measures are preventing our hospitals from being overrun does it?
Excess Mortality during Covid-19 – All Ages
This is where the Canadian approach is shown to have completely failed. Sweden was right to not lockdown and they’re experiencing less all-cause mortality in their country as a result. Initially, Sweden had higher excess mortality compared to Canada but that tapered off over time and the country found itself below Canada’s excess mortality for a large portion of 2020.
We Should’ve Locked Down like Australia!
We’ve all heard these types of arguments – if we would’ve just locked down like Australia or (insert rights violating nation name here) we would’ve been better off and over with this by now! That’s an interesting thought but New Zealand and Australia have experienced higher excess mortality rates for much of the pandemic than Sweden did who didn’t lockdown. In fact, much of the data since February of 2021 shows that Sweden is doing consistently better in this metric compared to heavy lockdown nations like Australia and New Zealand.
We see the same trend with New Zealand vs Sweden when we are comparing excess mortality. Sweden did worse initially but has seen their excess mortality drop throughout the pandemic and since February of 2021, they have been consistently beating New Zealand in the excess death metric. It appears that their long-term strategy of targeted protection is working.
Admit it – everything we’ve done has been theatre
Looking at the data I’m left with the conclusion that everything we’ve done to this point has been nothing more than political theatre. The data says that Sweden is doing just fine while Ontario continues the charade of stealing livelihoods and ruining lives under the juxtaposition that we’re saving lives – we’re not, we’re allowing them to be destroyed.
You won’t hear it from the long list of “experts” the government likes to trot in front of the T.V cameras though. You know, the same “experts” who have been profiteering through honorariums, grants and study funding throughout the pandemic.
Diverge Media is an independent Canadian media company dedicated to bringing you the stories that matter. Unlike many of our mainstream media competitors, we don’t take taxpayer handouts from the government and therefore rely entirely on the generous donations/purchases of our readers/viewers to help fund our work. Check out our merch below and consider purchasing some Diverge swag or leave a donation below! All the best – the Diverge Media team.
Media is a Virus T-shirt
This t-shirt was hand drawn by an artist under the commission of Diverge Media.
The Media is a virus shirt was made because viruses can either infect the minds of the population with good information that can fuel good decisions or poor information that promotes poor ones.
Help support independent media with this one of a kind t-shirt!
Diverge Media snapback Trucker hat
This comfortable snap-back Trucker cap is made in Canada. It’s purple and white thread will have you proud to Diverge from the mainstream media and display your support for independent Canadian media!
You must log in to post a comment.