updated 23 Dec 2021: Analysis by Swiss Policy Research: Judgment day: Sweden vindicated
In contrast, Sweden has widely been regarded, or indeed criticized, as the least repressive Western country during the coronavirus pandemic, having imposed no lockdowns, no elementary school closures, no mask mandates, no “vaccine passport” (yet), and very limited testing and contact tracing compared to Austria and most other Western countries.
And yet, in December 2021, Austria overtook Sweden in terms of total covid mortality (see chart above). This comes after Austria had reached, in late November, the highest seven-day covid infection rate in the world. The European average covid mortality had already overtaken Swedish covid mortality back in March 2021.
But can Nordic Sweden and Alpine Austria really be compared in a legitimate way? Indeed, they can...
But is it fair to call December 2021 the “judgment day”? Indeed it is, because Sweden has already crossed the “pandemic finish line” and was the first Western country to see the return of influenza, which had been displaced by the coronavirus since March of 2020. Of course, the novel coronavirus will not disappear from Sweden or from anywhere else, and Sweden will certainly see future coronavirus waves, but Sweden has achieved a high population infection rate (about 60% to 75%) and has entered the endemic phase...
https://swprs.org/judgment-day-sweden-vindicated/
22 Dec: Pinned Tweet: Prof. Freedom
HUGE - According to the latest calculations by “The Economist” Sweden has the lowest excess mortality in all of Europe in 2021. Is it now allowed to compare Sweden with Norway, Finland and Denmark? LINK
https://twitter.com/prof_freedom
I know what you are trying to say and agree, but I feel the quote is stated in a slightly off-kilter way. Novel viruses are viruses that have not been seen before.
The original 2019 engineered version of the “novel coronavirus” has already basically disappeared and has been replaced by various mutations. Omicron is the 13th major mutation of the 2019 novel coronavirus. It is a descendant of a novel virus but by definition that means it is not actually a novel virus itself.
Each new variant will likely be closer to the more common coronavirus versions that have been circulating for thousands of years. That is just the way that these tiny organisms evolve. Despite viruses that cause the flu and coronaviruses mutating constantly we do not call them novel viruses unless they are substantially different from varieties that have been seen before. Coronaviruses have been with us for thousands of years and are typically considered less threatening than common flu viruses.
The media and politicians hoping to keep the masses alarmed are still hyping coronaviruses but omicron and future variants almost certainly will revert to being less threatening than various viruses which cause the flu.