[hire_charts]

It doesn't need to be a global/political conspiracy for people to be more sensitive to a large amount of people dying after almost 20 years of significantly lower death rates.

Edit: Also, looking at overall deaths per million is not anything like comparing actual mortality rates of those infected. The baseline mortality in 1918 was already way higher and the pandemic amplified that, despite actually being less deadly than COVID-19 at an individual level. So I'd argue that the response to this pandemic was more than merited and was appropriate to the nature of the virus itself. It was not just another "asian flu."

[ArkanExplorer]

Deaths in Sweden are only 6% higher in 2020 than in 2018:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/525353/sweden-number-of-...

It would seem unlikely that the population would notice a 6% increase against the base annual death rate. We previously tolerated hospital overcrowding and death spikes from influenza waves.

Most other countries around the world are showing a 4-6% increase. There seems to be a correlation to severity of lockdown and increased number of deaths, presumably due to factors like interruptions to regular medical treatments, and individual health deteriorating during lockdown.

[randomopining]

How do you factor in the projection of infections/deaths without any enforced lockdowns?

Aka everybody gets it very fast and in a short time period, hospitals are easily overwhelmed and lead to even more deaths.

[Izkata]

> Deaths in Sweden are only 6% higher in 2020 than in 2018

More interestingly, there was a dip in 2019, so 2020 was expected to be a bit high even before the pandemic.

[hire_charts]

See my edit above. Looking at a country's overall death rates is not how you should compare virulence.