RE: Good article28 Dec 2021 17:29
Looking at 'covid' numbers in isolation leads in many directions.
Norway and Finland had harsh flu seasons before 2020 whereas Sweden had a lighter than normal season leaving much 'dry tinder' for 2020. Also they did the same debacle as UK of removing elderly from hospitals to homes where large numbers were then afflicted by the resulting spread. The Swedish gov admitted this had been a terrible mistake. After these large initial numbers in a very short period, despite never shutting schools, never mandating masks, and all pubs restaurants staying open, hospitals not ignoring cancer screening etc, it tailed off into the summer and since then all has been better than most.
Then there's the fact that covid numbers relate little to having a virus with cases being a +ve test which doesn't test for covid and deaths being for any reason within 28 days of a +ve test, up to 60 days in some circumstances. Added to that is the variables in counting methods that may occur between countries. In the UK (and possibly everywhere else), if you have 2x +ve tests in different 'reporting weeks' it's counted as 2 cases !
Hence I prefer the overall excess deaths as this looks at the overall performance of the country in maintaining the health of the nation and/or the effects of policy.