mises | As soon as it became clear that the Swedish state had no plans to
implement harsh lock downs, global media organizations like the New York Times have implemented what can only be described as an ideological jihad against Sweden.
For many weeks, there has been an incessant drumbeat of articles with titles touting the "the failure of the country's no-lockdown coronavirus strategy," that "Sweden Has Become the World's Cautionary Tale," and "How Sweden Screwed Up."
It is common to read articles stating that Sweden has one of the world's worst death rates for COVID-19.
This, however, remains a matter of perspective.
Sweden's total deaths per million in population as of July 14
is 549. That's considerably lower than the deaths per million rate in
the UK, which is 662, and in Spain, which is 608. In Belgium, the death
rate is 884.
Moreover, the Sweden deaths per million is many times better than the rates found in New Jersey and New York: 1,763 and 1,669.
An astute reader, however, will quickly notice that articles
condemning Sweden's "failure" rarely if ever mention these comparisons.
Instead, anti-Sweden articles are careful to only mention countries with
far lower deaths per million, usually Denmark and Norway. A nonspecific
stock phrase is generally inserted which repeats that Sweden has: "a far higher mortality rate than its neighbours."
Articles about countries with far more deaths per million than Sweden
often make excuses for those governments. In May, for example, the BBC
repeated the Belgian government's talking points, which attempted to
explain that things aren't as bad as they seem in
Belgium. In places where harsh lockdowns were implemented—such as New
York or the UK— the explanation is that these countries implemented
their lockdowns too late.
