Select East Asian Regions v. Sweden

Post #1014

Some of the people who locked down the hardest and who wore the most face masks during 2020 were found in regions in East Asia. One of the nations that locked down the least and wore face masks the least in 2020 was Sweden. When you check for excess deaths, the early numbers make it seem like masks and lockdowns helped:

Prior to 28 Feb 2022 (Omicron era), only Sweden had reached 30% excess death (weekly), though — after that — Sweden stayed below 20% excess death after the first week of 2021 and for almost all of 2022. But in the regions from East Asia (Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan), the situation is reversed after February 2022:

While Sweden never reached 50% excess weekly death (ever), weekly excess death in South Korea reached 89%. And much worse would be monthly excess death that reached that high, because it is harder to get entire months of excess than it is for weeks. For both Taiwan and Hong Kong, even monthly excess death exceeded 50%.

All while the purple line for Sweden reveals an average of close to 0% excess death. From January 2020, the mean weekly excess death in Sweden to the end of August 2023 was just under 4%. Mean weekly excess death in South Korea to the end of August 2023 — same time period — was over 16% (quadruple).

In Taiwan and Hong Kong — where only monthly data is available — the average monthly excess death rate over that same time period was 12% to 16% (at least triple; up to quadruple the average excess death rate found in Sweden).

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NOTE: Hong Kong monthly excess at left is so high that it passed the world record epidemic death rate (the infamous WREDR) which was set 73 years ago in the Great Towns of England and Wales:

Monthly excess of 100%.

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This evidence from over the long-term suggests that lockdowns and masks do not lead to less total excess death, because Sweden’s total number of excess deaths is below that of regions with a reputation for how much they locked down, and for how much they wore masks.