I know we sound like a broken record for saying it but…… Sweden’s strategy can’t be said to have failed (re point 3), they have a better outcome than we do (in terms of mortality) and are on track for an over all death rate this year no higher than their average.
Can we put this tired trope of Swedish apocalypse – usually based on some strained logic about their neighbours death rates and some tasteless carping about their winter resurgence – to rest?
If you do love lockdown, try and find a better reason why.
the British government could have followed its worst instincts and adopted the Swedish strategy ” which didn’t even work in Sweden, and would have failed harder over here.
In what sense didn’t it work in Sweden? Sure, the country had more deaths than its immediate neighbours, but a) that was mainly due to the gross mistake of failing to protect old people’s homes sufficiently (a mistake made by the UK and New York City, among others); and b) the country had a lower fatality rate than the UK, Spain, Italy and Belgium.
So a more reasonable judgement is that Sweden fared about average, no? Sweden is currently on course to finish the year with no more excess deaths than in the past 5 years.
Second, why would Sweden’s approach have “failed harder” in Britain? Is this an allusion to the absence of the legendary Swedish civic responsibility and obedience in British people? The same British people who are overwhelmingly in favour of strict lockdown, much to the chagrin of lockdown sceptics?
It is like there is some kind of looking glass out in the world where all images are reversed and truth, reason, and The Western Way flipped backwards, and the MSM has crawled through it, sending back their stories from the other side.
Is this guy wrong about EVERYTHING? Trump lost by 34,000 votes in key districts of key states by Biden using dirty means. His loss was NOT inevitable.
Covid is not a problem for healthy. almost 8 Billion people you know. Death from everything goes on, the numbers are not worth destroying the lives and education of so many.
Yes, he is wrong about everything here, and in almost everything else he writes. Never forget that most of these writers are simply not very bright. The point at which I finally gave up on The Guardian came a couple years ago when Afua Hirsch wrote of the British fighting at Stalingrad. Like most MPs, these people are just dumb.
Tom Griffiths
3 years ago
A brief glimpse at the 20th Century gives us two incredibly simple ways this year could have been a lot worse. Ten years of the 20th were spent in global conflicts of appallingly destructive power. This was followed by 30 years of living in the paralysing fear of global nuclear warfare.
Rubbish! I not only know the history as history, I was there for the second of the wars and all of the “paralysing fear of global nuclear warfare”. Yes, the war was bad but the thirty years following were a period of almost unparalleled economic growth and prosperity and global reductions in inequality. Not everybody in the world lives in the UK. Luckily.
Michael Dawson
3 years ago
11. 2020 gave posters on this site a lot to moan about, and in case some are feeling withdrawal symptoms after a few days merry-making, I’m going to write this short article that pushes the buttons all over again – covid really is deadly to a lot of people, the Swedish model is not a panacea, the vaccines are a good thing, Donald Trump has not been a good president.
Thanks, Peter, I am in a small minority, but I agree with almost everything you’e written here.
But how I long for a summing up of 2020 by a writer who lives in reality instead of the fairy land of the wokes. Maybe Rush Limbaugh could be commissioned to sum up 2020 on Unherd, for the people who understand reality.
I know you’re trolling but sadly, you are only in the minority here – most people in the wider world seem to agree with you (I had the misfortune of seeing a twitter spat about C19 yesterday and lost the will to live).
Apparently you can blame people for disease; sacrifice the well being of the young; overturn liberal democratic values; isolate the elderly whilst claiming to protect them and impoverish millions – all to rapturous applause (literally) and almost biblical condemnation of those who say ‘umm, hold on’
All you need is a suited and booted newscaster giving you a daily dose of non-contextualised death statistics.
Who knew it would still be that easy even in 2020?
Vem Dalen
3 years ago
Appointing Kate Bingham as the head of the vaccine task force was the right one. Cries of cronyism look past the fact that she was eminently qualified to lead the UK’s vaccine strategy. And most importantly she backed the right horse with initial orders of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine. Athough the heavy lifting will probably be done by the AstraZenica University of Oxford vaccine, we were able to enjoy a December respite when our old and vulnerable could finally see a route out of this misery. That was a much needed boost. So, thank you Kate Bingham for your diligence and professionalism. I’m also hopeful that we’ll also have a big debt of gratitude to Professor Sarah Gilbert and her team at University of Oxford very soon.
Robert Malcolm
3 years ago
Nonsense. What we should have done was issued the entire public with free supplies of Vitamin D: which would have saved 50,000 lives and prevented any need for a lockdown.
Yes. The evidence is not all in yet but it would have been a bloody good start. I think history will show it wouldn’t have been a silly idea.
I also believe that vaccines will play a very small part in the defeat of this virus. Like all previous viral pandemics it will be defeated by the virus mutating to be more benign. Vaccine or not it will be just a common cold for most by 2023. Vaccine or no vaccine.
blanes
3 years ago
If the so called pandemic was real, you wouldn’t have people arguing if it was real or not.
Peter KE
3 years ago
Poor article. Lack of balance.
Barry Coombes
3 years ago
I always wondered why Trump went for “Sleepy Joe” instead of the more cutting “Creepy Joe”. He used to be so good at insults. With hindsight, maybe “The Necromancer” would have been even more appropriate.
Rasmus Fogh
3 years ago
Re: 5 The Prime Minister’s recovery was a vital boost to *brexiteer* morale. As for me – I was glad he survived. I would also have been glad to see him replaced, in the interest of the nation’s future..
Re: 10 As you say, you got one thing right, alongside the many you botched, like the test-and-trace system. Cause for contentment, maybe happiness. For (auto)celebration??
Fran Martinez
3 years ago
Ten ways this article couldn’t have been worse…
Mark Beal
3 years ago
The curious thing about the Covid panicdemic, is that while one can understand the tough measures back in March, when the virus was still largely an unknown quantity, as time has gone by, measures have become increasingly disproportionate to whatever threat the virus poses. A naturally sceptical person might suspect that there’s something going on that has precious little to do with the virus.
Regarding Biden, his victory is no more than a “Be careful what you wish for” moment.
I know we sound like a broken record for saying it but…… Sweden’s strategy can’t be said to have failed (re point 3), they have a better outcome than we do (in terms of mortality) and are on track for an over all death rate this year no higher than their average.
Can we put this tired trope of Swedish apocalypse – usually based on some strained logic about their neighbours death rates and some tasteless carping about their winter resurgence – to rest?
If you do love lockdown, try and find a better reason why.
Schweden uber alles!
In what sense didn’t it work in Sweden? Sure, the country had more deaths than its immediate neighbours, but a) that was mainly due to the gross mistake of failing to protect old people’s homes sufficiently (a mistake made by the UK and New York City, among others); and b) the country had a lower fatality rate than the UK, Spain, Italy and Belgium.
So a more reasonable judgement is that Sweden fared about average, no? Sweden is currently on course to finish the year with no more excess deaths than in the past 5 years.
Second, why would Sweden’s approach have “failed harder” in Britain? Is this an allusion to the absence of the legendary Swedish civic responsibility and obedience in British people? The same British people who are overwhelmingly in favour of strict lockdown, much to the chagrin of lockdown sceptics?
Great response.
I have to say that this must rank among the worst articles I’ve read on Unheard (ok I know its The Post).
Item eleven could have been “more articles from Peter”
Lol.
A facile list and I disagree with almost every statement.
Me too
It is like there is some kind of looking glass out in the world where all images are reversed and truth, reason, and The Western Way flipped backwards, and the MSM has crawled through it, sending back their stories from the other side.
Brilliant, can not stop laughing. 🙂
C-19 Worldwide Scoreboard:
Infected:81M,
Survived: 57.2 M,
Pending: 22M,
Killed: 1.77M.
Comment: This is not the Black Death. QED.
If only the forthcoming Chinese War could be won so cheaply.
Source:worldometers.
Cannot find anything of value in this piece. By the way, in the West 2021 will be worse than 2020.
Yep, we ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.
Pure wokery orthodoxy.
This article is Liberal/Lefty Koolaid.
Is this guy wrong about EVERYTHING? Trump lost by 34,000 votes in key districts of key states by Biden using dirty means. His loss was NOT inevitable.
Covid is not a problem for healthy. almost 8 Billion people you know. Death from everything goes on, the numbers are not worth destroying the lives and education of so many.
Yes, he is wrong about everything here, and in almost everything else he writes. Never forget that most of these writers are simply not very bright. The point at which I finally gave up on The Guardian came a couple years ago when Afua Hirsch wrote of the British fighting at Stalingrad. Like most MPs, these people are just dumb.
A brief glimpse at the 20th Century gives us two incredibly simple ways this year could have been a lot worse. Ten years of the 20th were spent in global conflicts of appallingly destructive power. This was followed by 30 years of living in the paralysing fear of global nuclear warfare.
Clearly Peter Franklin knows no history.
Rubbish!
I not only know the history as history, I was there for the second of the wars and all of the “paralysing fear of global nuclear warfare”.
Yes, the war was bad but the thirty years following were a period of almost unparalleled economic growth and prosperity and global reductions in inequality.
Not everybody in the world lives in the UK. Luckily.
11. 2020 gave posters on this site a lot to moan about, and in case some are feeling withdrawal symptoms after a few days merry-making, I’m going to write this short article that pushes the buttons all over again – covid really is deadly to a lot of people, the Swedish model is not a panacea, the vaccines are a good thing, Donald Trump has not been a good president.
Thanks, Peter, I am in a small minority, but I agree with almost everything you’e written here.
But how I long for a summing up of 2020 by a writer who lives in reality instead of the fairy land of the wokes. Maybe Rush Limbaugh could be commissioned to sum up 2020 on Unherd, for the people who understand reality.
I know you’re trolling but sadly, you are only in the minority here – most people in the wider world seem to agree with you (I had the misfortune of seeing a twitter spat about C19 yesterday and lost the will to live).
Apparently you can blame people for disease; sacrifice the well being of the young; overturn liberal democratic values; isolate the elderly whilst claiming to protect them and impoverish millions – all to rapturous applause (literally) and almost biblical condemnation of those who say ‘umm, hold on’
All you need is a suited and booted newscaster giving you a daily dose of non-contextualised death statistics.
Who knew it would still be that easy even in 2020?
Appointing Kate Bingham as the head of the vaccine task force was the right one. Cries of cronyism look past the fact that she was eminently qualified to lead the UK’s vaccine strategy. And most importantly she backed the right horse with initial orders of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine. Athough the heavy lifting will probably be done by the AstraZenica University of Oxford vaccine, we were able to enjoy a December respite when our old and vulnerable could finally see a route out of this misery. That was a much needed boost. So, thank you Kate Bingham for your diligence and professionalism. I’m also hopeful that we’ll also have a big debt of gratitude to Professor Sarah Gilbert and her team at University of Oxford very soon.
Nonsense. What we should have done was issued the entire public with free supplies of Vitamin D: which would have saved 50,000 lives and prevented any need for a lockdown.
Yes. The evidence is not all in yet but it would have been a bloody good start. I think history will show it wouldn’t have been a silly idea.
I also believe that vaccines will play a very small part in the defeat of this virus. Like all previous viral pandemics it will be defeated by the virus mutating to be more benign. Vaccine or not it will be just a common cold for most by 2023. Vaccine or no vaccine.
If the so called pandemic was real, you wouldn’t have people arguing if it was real or not.
Poor article. Lack of balance.
I always wondered why Trump went for “Sleepy Joe” instead of the more cutting “Creepy Joe”. He used to be so good at insults. With hindsight, maybe “The Necromancer” would have been even more appropriate.
Re: 5
The Prime Minister’s recovery was a vital boost to *brexiteer* morale. As for me – I was glad he survived. I would also have been glad to see him replaced, in the interest of the nation’s future..
Re: 10
As you say, you got one thing right, alongside the many you botched, like the test-and-trace system. Cause for contentment, maybe happiness. For (auto)celebration??
Ten ways this article couldn’t have been worse…
The curious thing about the Covid panicdemic, is that while one can understand the tough measures back in March, when the virus was still largely an unknown quantity, as time has gone by, measures have become increasingly disproportionate to whatever threat the virus poses. A naturally sceptical person might suspect that there’s something going on that has precious little to do with the virus.
Regarding Biden, his victory is no more than a “Be careful what you wish for” moment.