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Five years on: The countries that never locked down for Covid-19 {2025 study}
BBC ^ | 5th March 2025 | Chris Baraniuk

Posted on 06/16/2026 8:09:49 PM PDT by Cronos

Most of the world found itself confined to their homes in March 2020 as Covid-19 spread at a blistering pace. Some countries didn't impose any lockdown restrictions – so was their decision the right one?

Sweden, Taiwan, Uruguay, Iceland and a few others never enacted a lockdown that involved severe restrictions on the movement of people

Five years later, the scientific studies and data have piled up, offering a detailed, long-term assessment of whether these countries were right to reject this most drastic of public health interventions.

Scientists have tried to answer that question. Ingeborg Forthun at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and researchers in other countries including Sweden published a study in May 2024 that compared excess deaths in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland during the first years of the pandemic. https://academic.oup.com/eurpub/article/34/4/737/7675929

While Sweden avoided strict government imposed controls, instead relying mainly on voluntary behavioural changes from is citizens, the other three nations imposed strict lockdowns in the early stages of the pandemic. Norway, Finland and Denmark closed schools and most other aspects of public life while also asking people to work from home, but they stopped short of confining people to their homes in the way other countries such as the UK did.

"The four countries have a comparable number of excess deaths when you account for the fact that population sizes differ," says Forthun. What lockdowns did affect, in part, was the timing of when spikes in excess deaths occurred. Of Norway's approach, Forthun adds: "We probably kept some older and vulnerable people alive for a longer period."

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: covid; covid19; lockdowns; pandemic
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We really need a publicized, in depth study into what worked and what didn't, factoring in not 9nky death rate from 2920 to 2025 but also poverty, business confidence and mental health.

That would be critical to know how to react the next time.

As I said during the pandemic, Sweden's comparison to Denmark-Norway is the ideal way to measure. Tauwan, Iceland, new Zealand are island nations so easier to isolate and not good for comparison. But Sweden's case is very good for comparison.

1 posted on 06/16/2026 8:09:49 PM PDT by Cronos
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As far as I have read

Stricter initial rules saved lives in Denmark and Norway during the pre-vaccine phase (2020–2021). Sweden paid a heavy upfront price in human lives for its voluntary strategy, though its long-term average balanced out significantly.

Sweden avoided some localized retail and hospitality damage early on.

Because Swedes still socially distanced, lost loved ones, and shifted heavily to remote work, their daily life disruptions closely mirrored those of the Danes and Norwegians. Consequently, adult mental health tracking showed minimal systemic divergence between the two cohorts by 2025.

For children though, there was a marked difference.

Sweden’s policy to prioritize keeping schools open yielded clear, quantifiable benefits for the mental health and social development of children compared to the isolated environments experienced by Danish and Norwegian youth.


2 posted on 06/16/2026 8:13:06 PM PDT by Cronos (Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.)
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I would note that while Sweden didn’t have legal mandates, but they had massive compliance. When the government recommended working from home and avoiding public transit, Swedes actually did it. Apple and Google mobility data from 2020 showed that foot traffic and transit usage in Stockholm dropped almost as sharply as it did in cities under strict legal lockdowns.

AND Sweden has an exceptionally healthy, active population with low baseline rates of obesity and metabolic diseases compared to countries like the UK or the US, giving their population a higher natural resilience to severe outcomes.

AND Sweden has the highest percentage of single-person households in Europe (nearly 40–50% depending on the region). Multi-generational households—where grandchildren live with grandparents—are incredibly rare. This is not the case in most countries, not even the USA or UK.


3 posted on 06/16/2026 8:16:28 PM PDT by Cronos (Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.)
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To: Cronos
Why were casualties deliberately promoted for Covid? Why were cures censored or punished? To increase the fear. Why the worthless masks? To make the fear a constant part of our everyday lives. Why? To push Mail in Voting. Why? Mail in voting is fraud friendly. The enemy stole America.  Pantload Joe was a coup stooge .

My theory is that after Hillary lost her fixed election ( and went on an insane rampage) the enemy realized they had to boost the cheat up a notch. That is when the RATs and Communist China came up with the idea of creating a Virus to steal the next election.

4 posted on 06/16/2026 8:26:07 PM PDT by Nateman (Democrats did not strive for fraud friendly voting merely to continue honest elections.)
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To: Cronos

“”The four countries have a comparable number of excess deaths when you account for the fact that population sizes differ,”

IOW, the only meaningful metric is excess deaths per capita; all other metrics are just lying propaganda ...


5 posted on 06/16/2026 8:26:23 PM PDT by catnipman ((A Vote For The Lesser Of Two Evils Still Counts As A Vote For Evil))
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To: catnipman

“We really need a publicized, in depth study into what worked and what didn’t”

One thing that worked was the election was turned over into a mail in election. Which is why we likely will never get any kind of analysis


6 posted on 06/16/2026 8:36:27 PM PDT by stanne
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To: Cronos

‘React The NEXT TIME ?”
.
Won’t be No Next Time !
.
Two Weeks to Flatten the Curve!
Full Stop.
Don’t care Who said It.
.
Take the Jab or kill Granny!
Tyranny Writ LARGE!
.
Hospitals where patients are
Intubated but you Can’t Visit
As they Die !
.
Insidious Hoax on a Frightening scale.
.
Next Time Ha!
.
Only for frightened little rabbits


7 posted on 06/16/2026 8:38:01 PM PDT by Big Red Badger (Good SCIENCE is Not Faith BUT Curiosity. )
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To: Big Red Badger


8 posted on 06/16/2026 8:47:49 PM PDT by T.B. Yoits
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To: Nateman

Your first paragraph ignores that the same measures were used in out countries as well. It was not a plot for getting Biden.


9 posted on 06/16/2026 8:48:03 PM PDT by Cronos (Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.)
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To: Big Red Badger

There will be another global pandemic. The question is, how do we react


10 posted on 06/16/2026 8:49:05 PM PDT by Cronos (Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.)
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To: stanne

Covid restrictions were not only in the USA


11 posted on 06/16/2026 8:49:55 PM PDT by Cronos (Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.)
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To: Cronos

And Trump is despised and feared beyond the USA


12 posted on 06/16/2026 8:56:16 PM PDT by stanne
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To: Cronos

Whats a “9nky”?


13 posted on 06/16/2026 8:56:23 PM PDT by Repeal The 17th ( I am obsessed with not being obsessed with anything.)
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To: Cronos

It was a plot for electing a Democrat favorable to China. China took extreme measures in its own country to help build up the fear. China could care less that the rest of the World was hurt by thier plot. Dictators who want to rule the World seldom do.


14 posted on 06/16/2026 8:57:36 PM PDT by Nateman (Democrats did not strive for fraud friendly voting merely to continue honest elections.)
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To: Nateman

The same measures were used in other countries.


15 posted on 06/16/2026 9:08:47 PM PDT by Cronos (Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.)
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To: Repeal The 17th

Only.

;)


16 posted on 06/16/2026 9:09:14 PM PDT by Cronos (Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.)
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To: Cronos

Thank you for this excellent explanation. I was looking for something similar int he article but it was a train wreck. It felt like it was written by someone with a psychological inability to get to the end of one point before skipping to another.


17 posted on 06/16/2026 9:44:29 PM PDT by edwinland
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To: Cronos

Not quite. In India Ivermectin was successful distributed. Here in the US it was downplayed as horse medicine and not easily available for people. Successful management of the disease would reduce the fear needed to push mail in voting.


18 posted on 06/16/2026 10:11:30 PM PDT by Nateman (Democrats did not strive for fraud friendly voting merely to continue honest elections.)
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To: Cronos

Taiwan knew about it first and told the WHO, who ignored them because Taiwan is not allowed in the WHO or to talk to them.

Taiwan immediately cut off all travel from China.

Trump did later, and even then Biden called it racist.


19 posted on 06/16/2026 10:19:10 PM PDT by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: Nateman
That is when the RATs and Communist China came up with the idea of creating a Virus to steal the next election.

No proof. So it's not true.

Obviously, they got sloppy. Fauci covered up because he didn't want to be held responsible for his role in funding research in China.

If the DNC worked with China secretly so they could overthrow Trump in 2020, there was no way that they were going to keep that a secret.

20 posted on 06/16/2026 10:22:33 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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