Topic: WorldNetDaily
Serial COVID misinformer Art Moore wrote in a July 22 WorldNetDaily article:
Last year, London's Guardian newspaper called Sweden's laissez-faire approach to the coronavirus pandemic – generally allowing the coronavirus to run its course while the population reaches herd immunity – a "catastrophe" in the making, while CBS News said the Scandinavian nation had become "an example of how not to handle COVID-19."
But unlike its European neighbors, Sweden is welcoming visitors while businesses and schools are open with virtually no restrictions and there are no mask mandates, points out the Foundation for Economic Education.
And data show the seven-day rolling average for COVID deaths on Wednesday was zero, which is where it has been for about a week.
Sweden’s overall mortality rate in 2020 was lower than most of Europe, FEE added, and its economy suffered far less.
"Meanwhile, today Sweden is freer and healthier than virtually any other country in Europe."
You will not be surprised to learn that this claim is misleading as well. PolitiFact has looked into claims about Sweden and found they were not quite as rosy as right-wingers love to portray it:
In April 2020, in the weeks after the outbreak was declared a pandemic, we looked at two claims that touted Sweden’s more hands-off approach as superior to lockdown policies imposed in Europe and the U.S. We found that infection rate cited in one of these claims was not a reliable indicator of how a country was doing, given that it depended on how much testing was being done; and that Sweden’s COVID-19 death rate was higher than two of its neighbors.
[...]
By April 2021, there were signs that Sweden’s approach had flaws. At that point, the New Yorker reported, Sweden’s per-capita case counts and death rates were many times higher than any of its Nordic neighbors, all of which imposed lockdowns, travel bans and limited gatherings early on.
The latest figures show Sweden’s COVID-19 death rate is lower than in the European Union and the U.S. — but it has more than doubled in the past 10 months.
[...]
Overall, Sweden’s COVID-19 death rate of 142.5 per 100,000 population is well above neighbors Denmark (43.89), Finland (17.84), Norway (15.03) and Iceland (8.3), according to Johns Hopkins University.
[...]
Sweden has imposed fewer restrictions than other countries and had few deaths in July, but its COVID-19 death rate has been above the U.S. and the EU at various times during the pandemic. Sweden has had more COVID-19 deaths per capita than its neighbors, and infections are rising.
So Moore didn't tell the truth about this either. Is anyone surprised?
