South Korea, Poster Child for Containment Strategy, Now Has Same Excess Mortality as Sweden
Until recently, South Korea was the poster child for the ‘contain and vaccinate’ strategy, having kept infections to a minimum until completing its vaccine rollout.
In November of last year, former ‘Zero Covid’ proponent Devi Sridhar argued, “It is never too late to learn lessons from countries such as South Korea, which pursued maximum suppression, and succeeded.” And in a super-viral tweet, Vincent Rajkumar (a professor at the Mayo Clinic) proclaimed, “South Korea followed the textbook principles of epidemiology. Kept deaths 40 times lower all the way till 75% of population fully vaccinated. This is success.”
All that was true until February of this year, when the country saw its first major outbreak. This outbreak, as I noted previously, led to a large spike in excess mortality; by March’s end, the number of weekly deaths was almost 70% higher than normal.
Owing to this spike, South Korea now has the same excess mortality as Sweden – which took a famously relaxed approach to dealing with Covid. Note: the chart below is based on weekly deaths, rather than age-standardised mortality rates, so it overstates excess mortality in both countries.
Incidentally, you wouldn’t know this from looking at the official Covid death rates. As the chart below indicates, the number of ‘confirmed’ Covid deaths per million people is much higher in Sweden, presumably due to differences in testing or diagnosis. Which illustrates the importance of tracking excess mortality.
So, the country that did least to contain Covid has ended up with the same death toll as one of the countries that did most. What’s more, the majority of Sweden’s infections occurred before the vaccine rollout, whereas the vast majority of South Korea’s occurred after. Which suggests the benefits of containing the virus until after the vaccine rollout have been overstated.
Of course, South Korea didn’t do terribly. By containing the virus using border controls and contact tracing, they avoided really draconian lockdowns, and saw a comparatively mild downturn. Yet the measures they took still constitute a major infringement on civil liberties. As the Guardian notes, “Koreans’ movements were so finely and publicly tracked that secret love affairs and even hidden sexualities were brought to light.”
Anyone who cares about civil liberties will now have to ask whether South Korea’s strategy was worth it, given that Sweden ended up with the same death toll.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Brilliant article. Thank you.
Only downside is that it makes the rage worse.
Anyone who cares about civil liberties should have been questioning all of this from day 1.
Instead, so-called liberal human rights lovers have been amongst the most rabid when it comes to saying fundamental rights and freedoms come second to a cold virus. I am thoroughly ashamed of the Dutch government, public health officials, judiciary and establishment in general. One of the biggest mouths on the planet when it comes to lecturing about human rights has been happy to go along with what they know full well to be wrong, both from the perspective of civil liberties and from the perspective of science. The public health officials in particular know this was the wrong course. They started out on a similar course to that of Sweden and as time went by allowed themselves to be browbeaten into submission by moronic, sycophantic politicians in thrall to their paymasters in Brussels. A monkeypox on their houses!
Tegnell called it – the measures would only ever slow down the inevitable, not prevent it. I hope he’s patting himself on the back every single day.
Indeed.
“Tegnell called it – the measures would only ever slow down the inevitable, not prevent it. I hope he’s patting himself on the back every single day.”
I think he also stated right at the beginning in an Unherd interview with Freddie Sayers that we would ALL be in the same position in 5 years whatever we did. Looks like he’s going to be on the money once more.
Meanwhile we got B Johnson who went straight into panic mode flapping around like corporal Jones vis a vis Dad’s Army.
Oh for a cool head in Britain right now.
“Vincent Rajkumar (a professor at the Mayo Clinic) proclaimed, “South Korea followed the textbook principles of epidemiology. Kept deaths 40 times lower all the way till 75% of population fully vaccinated. This is success.”
I am not aware that the above approach is anywhere near “textbook,” particularly given that no actual “vaccines” were or have yet been deployed. Viruses come and go but attempts to contain airborne disease is stupidity of the highest order and follows the Canute principle.
The only effective approach which was worthy would have been as outlined in the Great Barrington Declaration but the Davos Deviants ensured this was universally ignored.
The reality is that lockdowns were employed worldwide precisely because of the negative effects they would have on health and as a way of softening up populations ready for the untested, dangerous injections that had been prepared and manufactured before March 2020.
The only things that have been textbook over the last two and half years are the pre-planning and the gaslighting.
Evil running rampant.
I was one of many who signed the Barrington Declaration, but my hunch is that there wasn’t a real long term plan. Just a degree of opportunism in the pharma trade, as a result of having been granted Emergency Use Authorisation for a new product. The cynic inside me suggests that the use of the term “vaccine” rather than something else, such as “a novel infection mitigation drug” allowed them to work around the normal test protocols for any such thing; we’ll see.
“https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/vaccine-was-on-the-way-before-covid-was-confirmed-part-1/”
John this may change your views and there are many articles reiterating a similar view.
https://in-this-together.com/global-commons-part-1/
And this from Iain Davis – one of the best.
The term “vaccine” was used to ensure that there was no testing. This has long been in the planning & we are only just beginning to see the human cost of the toxic bioweapon injection.
The pandemic babies in ICU in Australia with no ability to fight off disease is one of the cruellest things. They knew before mandating the use of this toxin that sterility was a possibility or that babies would be born with a useless immune system.
They’re not “pandemic” babies at all – they’re the off-spring of fully jabbed to the hilt parents. It’s the toxic bioweapon which has done this.
My blood is boiling at the harm done.
I too signed the GBD.
The Great Barrington Declaration spoke only common sense and yet even I, someone who really struggles to understand science realised that it was simple decency to follow its guidelines. But no, despite a fully prepared plandemic regime being in place our “betters” decided to tear up years of knowledge for a ‘years in the planning’ regime designed to maim and kill not just populations but the whole of humanity.
Anybody thinking I’m a conspiracy theorist feel free to have a go.
“The only effective approach which was worthy would have been as outlined in the Great Barrington Declaration but the Davos Deviants ensured this was universally ignored.”
That, and early treatment and prophylaxis with cheap off-label drugs (see C19early dot com) and supplements, which was censored if not banned of course. And that would have been truly decisive in saving countless lives.
In other words, the proverbial ferryman wants his money, and will ultimately get it either way, sooner or later. Jab or no jab, mask or no mask, lockdown or no lockdown, in the long run, most countries and states will end up within error bounds of each other regardless in terms of all-cause excess deaths per capita. Only real difference is that the stricter countries will end up with that much more collateral damage eventually.
It is truly a shame that the ideas given in the Great Barrington Declaration were given such short shrift by the mainstream for so long. But what would truly have been decisive in saving lives, that is, early treatment and prophylaxis with cheap off-label drugs (see C19early dot com) and supplements, and that was censored if not banned of course.
Quelle Surprise.