Sweden and the coronavirus: a lesson in media spin

April 16, 2020 By Jonathan Barth

All the rage in the news of late is the “failure” of Sweden’s coronavirus policy. Sweden thus far has adopted a moderate, targeted approach. They prohibit visitations at nursing homes, gatherings of more than fifty people, they have closed high schools and colleges, and the government has recommended  that people voluntarily stay at home where possible. Restaurants, bars, parks, playgrounds, and elementary schools remain open.

As evidence of Sweden’s “failed” response, the media persistently harps on the number of deaths in Sweden. On the surface, it sounds valid… until you realize that the same stories deliberately cover up the most important statistic of all: the number of confirmed cases per capita. This is the vital statistic when comparing the spread of the virus in Sweden versus other nations. You rarely hear this statistic because it directly contradicts the establishment’s predetermined agenda (blast Sweden because they dare to not radically shut down their entire country). Instead, the stories on Sweden trumpet a completely irrelevant statistic when comparing the spread of the disease in Sweden versus other countries: the number of deaths per capita. Virtually every article posted about Sweden pushes this fallacy................

This week a group of twenty-two researchers at Swedish universities and institutes harshly criticized the government’s decision not to strictly lock down the entire country. Think of the absurd reasoning here. 0.1181% of the Swedish population has been confirmed to have caught coronavirus. That means 99.88% of the Swedish population has not gotten a confirmed case of coronavirus. The death rate, of course, is even lower. Only 119 deaths per one million population. In other words, 0.0119% of the Swedish population has died of the coronavirus; of these, almost 90% were over the age of 70. And yet that's "failure"? How is that even remotely close to failure?..........

So the conclusion of the so-called experts (which so far have been comically wrong about almost everything related to this disease) is that the Swedes must lock down their country though 99.88% of their population has not gotten the disease and though only a tiny, tiny number of Swedes (0.01%) have died of it (almost 90% of whom were over the age of 70). That is madness........To Read More...