Dennis Prager Show - Sweden vs. USA, Which Covid Response Worked Better?
Aired: 2020-07-09
Duration: 02:09


=== Comparing Lockdown Strategies (02:09) ===

[00:00:00]  Let's take a challenge here from Michael in Adrian, Michigan.
[00:00:04]  Hi.
[00:00:07]  Well, I was just commenting back, you were talking about Sweden versus United States and the lockdown method and so on, and I disagree with America's method of lockdown as well, but Sweden hasn't got it all right either.
[00:00:25]  Sweden's death rate per capita is about 35% higher than ours.
[00:00:30]  Right, and it's about 35% lower than the number of European countries.
[00:00:37]  Yeah, depending on what you compare.
[00:00:39]  They vary.
[00:00:40]  Alright, so obviously depending on what you compare, it varies.
[00:00:44]  I agree.
[00:00:45]  Yeah, yeah.
[00:00:45]  I mean, it's neighboring countries, Finland and Norway.
[00:00:49]  Let's say that...
[00:00:52]  Let's say we would have had 40% more deaths in America than we had, or 35% more, and the country would not have devastated its economy and locked people down and stopped education and so on.
[00:01:09]  So the question is, would it be worth it?
[00:01:15]  I think you could have both.
[00:01:20]  I think the lockdown was wrong in the way they handled it.
[00:01:23]  Rather than a complete lockdown, it should have been targeted.
[00:01:28]  Right.
[00:01:29]  Well, to a large extent, that's what Sweden did.
[00:01:32]  I mean, the elderly did stay at home.
[00:01:35]  Look, I'm only letting you go because we only have a minute.
[00:01:41]  The vast, well, not the vast majority, but half the deaths in Sweden were in old-age homes, were in senior citizen homes.
[00:01:49]  Nursing home.
[00:01:50]  40% of the US deaths, to the best of my knowledge, certainly in New York, were in nursing home.
[00:01:59]  Doesn't make this any less of a tragedy in every individual case.
[00:02:05]  But it does not call for kids not to be at school.