Sweden Saw Lower Mortality Rate Than Most of Europe in 2020, Despite No Lockdown

Rene Loup said:

Going by the headline alone, my question is, is Sweden the exception or the norm if every nation handled COVID-19 like they did?

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Direct Driver said:

I discovered this site a couple of years ago. They have some very thoughtful and insightful articles. This is one of them regarding current events. It covers a lot of interesting bases and actually discusses the actual cost of risk mitigation.

Sweden Saw Lower Mortality Rate Than Most of Europe in 2020, Despite No Lockdown

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Rene Loup said:

Going by the headline alone, my question is, is Sweden the exception or the norm if every nation handled COVID-19 like they did?

It is not wise to gamble. These are human lives we are talking about, not poker chips or dollar bills.

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essentialsaltes said:

Sweden ranks #26 in number of per capita deaths out of ~200 countries.

Better than the US and the UK, but worse than Denmark, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Germany, Turkey, Morocco, Japan, Zambia, Australia........

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1 Does your life in Christ give you strength? Does his love comfort you? Do we share together in the Spirit? Do you have mercy and kindness? 2 If so, make me very happy by having the same thoughts, sharing the same love, and having one mind and purpose. 3 When you do things, do not let selfishness or pride be your guide. Be humble and give more honor to others than to yourselves. 4 Do not be interested only in your own life, but be interested in the lives of others.

Be Unselfish Like Christ
5 In your lives you must think and act like Christ Jesus.

6 Christ himself was like God in everything.
He was equal with God.
But he did not think that being equal with God was something to be held on to.
7 He gave up his place with God and made himself nothing.
He was born as a man
and became like a servant.
8 And when he was living as a man,
he humbled himself and was fully obedient to God.
He obeyed even when that caused his death—death on a cross.
9 So God raised Christ to the highest place.
God made the name of Christ greater than every other name.
10 God wants every knee to bow to Jesus—
everyone in heaven, on earth, and under the earth.
11 Everyone will say, “Jesus Christ is Lord”
and bring glory to God the Father.

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False Teachers
1 There used to be false prophets among God’s people, just as there are now. And you will have some false teachers in your group. They will secretly teach things that are wrong—teachings that will cause people to be lost. They will even refuse to accept the Master, Jesus, who bought their freedom. And so they will quickly destroy themselves. 2 Many will follow their evil ways and say evil things about the Way of truth. 3 Those false teachers only want your money. So they will use you by telling you what is not true. But God has already judged them guilty. And they will not escape the One who will destroy them.

4 When angels sinned, God did not let them go free without punishment. God sent them to hell and put them in caves of darkness. They are being held there to be judged. 5 And God punished the evil people who lived long ago. He brought a flood to the world that was full of people who were against him. But God saved Noah and seven other people with him. Noah was a man who preached about being right with God. 6 And God also punished the evil cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. He burned those cities until there was nothing left but ashes. He made those cities an example to show what will happen to those who are against God. 7 But God saved Lot from those cities. Lot, a good man, was troubled because of the sinful behavior of evil people. 8 (Lot was a good man, but he lived with evil people every day. His good heart was hurt by the evil things that he saw and heard.) 9 And so the Lord knows how to save those who serve him. He will save them when troubles come. And the Lord will hold evil people and punish them, while waiting for the Judgment Day. 10 That punishment is especially for those who live by doing the evil things their sinful selves want, and for those who hate the Lord’s authority.

These false teachers do anything they want and brag about it. They are not afraid to say bad things about the glorious angels. 11 The angels are much stronger and more powerful than false teachers. But even the angels do not accuse them with insults before the Lord. 12 But these men say bad things about what they do not understand. They are like animals that act without thinking. These animals are born to be caught and killed. And, like wild animals, these false teachers will be destroyed. 13 They have caused many people to suffer; so they themselves will suffer. That is their pay for what they have done. They take pleasure in doing evil things openly. So they are like dirty spots and stains among you. They bring shame to you in the meals that you eat together. 14 Every time they look at a woman they want her. Their desire for sin is never satisfied. They lead weak people into the trap of sin. They have taught their hearts to be selfish. God will punish them. 15 These false teachers left the right road and lost their way. They followed the way that Balaam went. Balaam was the son of Beor, who loved being paid for doing wrong. 16 But a donkey told Balaam that he was sinning. And the donkey is an animal that cannot talk. But the donkey spoke with a man’s voice and stopped the prophet’s crazy thinking.

17 Those false teachers are like rivers that have no water. They are like clouds blown by a storm. A place in the blackest darkness has been kept for them. 18 They brag with words that mean nothing. By their evil desires they lead people into the trap of sin. They lead away people who are just beginning to escape from other people who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are not free. They are slaves of things that will be destroyed. For a person is a slave of anything that controls him. 20 They were made free from the evil in the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But if they return to evil things and those things control them, then it is worse for them than it was before. 21 Yes, it would be better for them to have never known the right way. That would be better than to know the right way and then to turn away from the holy teaching that was given to them. 22 What they did is like this true saying: “A dog eats what it throws up.” And, “After a pig is washed, it goes back and rolls in the mud.”

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4 Before God and Jesus Christ I give you a command. Christ Jesus is the One who will judge all who are living and all who have died. Jesus has a kingdom, and he is coming again. So I give you this command: 2 Preach the Good News. Be ready at all times. Tell people what they need to do, tell them when they are wrong, and encourage them. Do these things with great patience and careful teaching. 3 The time will come when people will not listen to the true teaching. They will find more and more teachers who are pleasing to them, teachers who say the things they want to hear. 4 They will stop listening to the truth. They will begin to follow the teaching in false stories. 5 But you should control yourself at all times. When troubles come, accept them. Do the work of telling the Good News. Do all the duties of a servant of God.

6 My life is being given as an offering to God. The time has come for me to leave this life. 7 I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. 8 Now, a crown is waiting for me. I will get that crown for being right with God. The Lord is the judge who judges rightly, and he will give me the crown on that Day. He will give that crown not only to me but to all those who have waited with love for him to come again.

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1. Definition of THELEMITE
2. What is Thelema? | GotQuestions.org

Direct Driver said:

And the western world is paying a big price for destroying their economies and cultures. Sweden's example suggests it may not have been worth it.

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God Is More Important Than Money
19 “Don’t store treasures for yourselves here on earth. Moths and rust will destroy treasures here on earth. And thieves can break into your house and steal the things you have. 20 So store your treasure in heaven. The treasures in heaven cannot be destroyed by moths or rust. And thieves cannot break in and steal that treasure. 21 Your heart will be where your treasure is.

22 “The eye is a light for the body. If your eyes are good, then your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are evil, then your whole body will be full of darkness. And if the only light you have is really darkness, then you have the worst darkness.

24 “No one can be a slave to two masters. He will hate one master and love the other. Or he will follow one master and refuse to follow the other. So you cannot serve God and money at the same time.

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True Wealth
16 Jesus also said to his followers, “Once there was a rich man. He had a manager to take care of his business. Later, the rich man learned that his manager was cheating him. 2 So he called the manager in and said to him, ‘I have heard bad things about you. Give me a report of what you have done with my money. You can’t be my manager any longer!’ 3 Later, the manager thought to himself, ‘What will I do? My master is taking my job away from me! I am not strong enough to dig ditches. I am too proud to beg. 4 I know! I’ll do something so that when I lose my job, people will welcome me into their homes.’

5 “So the manager called in everyone who owed the master any money. He said to the first man, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 The man answered, ‘I owe him 800 gallons of olive oil.’ The manager said to him, ‘Here is your bill; sit down quickly and make the bill less. Write 400 gallons.’ 7 Then the manager said to another man, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ The man answered, ‘I owe him 1,000 bushels of wheat.’ Then the manager said to him, ‘Here is your bill; you can make it less. Write 800 bushels.’ 8 Later, the master praised the dishonest manager for being smart. Yes, worldly people are smarter with their own kind than spiritual people are.

9 “I tell you, make friends for yourselves using worldly riches. Then, when those things are gone, you will be welcomed in that home that continues forever. 10 Whoever can be trusted with small things can also be trusted with large things. Whoever is dishonest in little things will be dishonest in large things too. 11 If you cannot be trusted with worldly riches, then you will not be trusted with the true riches. 12 And if you cannot be trusted with the things that belong to someone else, then you will not be given things of your own.


13 “No servant can serve two masters. He will hate one master and love the other. Or he will follow one master and refuse to follow the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

God’s Law Cannot Be Changed
14 The Pharisees were listening to all these things. They made fun of Jesus because they all loved money. 15 Jesus said to them, “You make yourselves look good in front of people. But God knows what is really in your hearts. The things that are important to people are worth nothing to God.

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Controlling the Things We Say
1 My brothers, not many of you should become teachers. You know that we who teach will be judged more strictly than others. 2 We all make many mistakes. If there were a person who never said anything wrong, he would be perfect. He would be able to control his whole body, too. 3 We put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us. We can control their whole bodies. 4 It is the same with ships. A ship is very big, and it is pushed by strong winds. But a very small rudder controls that big ship. The man who controls the rudder decides where the ship will go. The ship goes where the man wants. 5 It is the same with the tongue. It is a small part of the body, but it brags about doing great things.

A big forest fire can be started with only a little flame. 6 And the tongue is like a fire. It is a whole world of evil among the parts of our bodies. The tongue spreads its evil through the whole body. It starts a fire that influences all of life. The tongue gets this fire from hell. 7 People can tame every kind of wild animal, bird, reptile, and fish, and they have tamed them. 8 But no one can tame the tongue. It is wild and evil. It is full of poison that can kill. 9 We use our tongues to praise our Lord and Father, but then we curse people. And God made them like himself. 10 Praises and curses come from the same mouth! My brothers, this should not happen. 11 Do good and bad water flow from the same spring? 12 My brothers, can a fig tree make olives? Can a grapevine make figs? No! And a well full of salty water cannot give good water.

True Wisdom
13 Is there anyone among you who is truly wise and understanding? Then he should show his wisdom by living right. He should do good things without being proud. A wise person does not brag. 14 But if you are selfish and have bitter jealousy in your hearts, you have no reason to brag. Your bragging is a lie that hides the truth. 15 That kind of “wisdom” does not come from God. That “wisdom” comes from the world. It is not spiritual. It is from the devil. 16 Where there is jealousy and selfishness, there will be confusion and every kind of evil. 17 But the wisdom that comes from God is like this: First, it is pure. Then it is also peaceful, gentle, and easy to please. This wisdom is always ready to help those who are troubled and to do good for others. This wisdom is always fair and honest. 18 When people work for peace in a peaceful way, they receive the good result of their right living.

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What you say can mean life or death.
Those who love to talk will be rewarded for what they say.

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1. Cartoon by Peter Steiner. Published in The New Yorker on July 5, 1993. - On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog

Direct Driver said:

Two things: First, a bad economy costs lives. Second, to give some perspective, when we built the grand Coolie dam, it was estimated that one worker's life would be lost for every million dollars spent. We built it anyway. In the end, we paid 44 million and 40 men died.

And we sent men to Omaha beach knowing full well that many of them would lose their lives. But we did it anyway.

Christianity is not about extending life. It's about quality of life. We all die. Extending a miserable life by not fighting those who would enslave us is simply not the Christian way. And if a second wave hits Washington DC, that will be why. It's why our forefathers fought England. It's even why Jesus died - literally to free us.

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Direct Driver said:

Yes, numbers can be cherry picked, and I think both sides do it.

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Direct Driver said:

That was one article.

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Direct Driver said:

Sweden, South Dakota, etc. The problem is that doing nothing, and doing lockdowns both have a cost. And the western world is paying a big price for destroying their economies and cultures. Sweden's example suggests it may not have been worth it.

It's why people in flood plains and hurricane country don't spend themselves into bankruptcy to protect their home from flooding. It's why people in Tornado country don't build underground.

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