NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt recently received the Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism from Washington State University. Hall is cited as recently saying, “The idea that we should always give two sides equal weight and merit does not reflect the world we find ourselves in,” Holt said. “That the sun sets in the west is a fact. Any contrary view does not deserve our time or attention.”
This statement did not sit well with local conservative columnist Dale Courtney (April 14) who quickly extrapolated from Holt’s quote to a conspiracy to limit conservative speech. And yet, Courtney was not censored when he wrote, “Yet just like Florida and Texas, Sweden is no longer discussed by the media because it is a counterexample to the lock-down, settled science narrative that is being pushed.” Setting aside the unsubstantiated claim that there is a coordinated conspiracy to silence such discussions, let’s look at the numbers.
I considered deaths per 100,000 residents a fair measure when we talk about different policies and other variables that might impact how the pandemic has wreaked its damage, although there are many other socio-economic indicators that could be considered (e.g., food insecurity). It turns out that pandemics are generally bad news no matter where you live or whether you consider yourself conservative or liberal.
According to data from the John Hopkins COVID-19 dashboard (accessed April 18), Texas has experienced approximately 171 deaths per 100,000 residents while Florida has experienced 160; nothing to brag about here. States that adopted more aggressive public health measures like Washington and Oregon experienced death rates of 71 and 58 per 100,000, respectively. Of course, there are exceptions. California certainly went off the rails and has suffered 154 deaths per 100,000. Neelon et al. recently published a paper in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine showing that gubernatorial party affiliation (GOP) is associated with higher risk of COVID-19 mortality at the state level. The authors concluded that this was due, in part, to politically motivated policies that were not in the best interest of public health.
What about Sweden? Courtney claims that “ … Sweden has the 27th highest deaths per million, well behind lock-down countries like Italy, UK, USA, … .” In this case, I’m not sure how he defines “lock-down countries.” The USA has not imposed any federal pandemic lockdowns and the states are all over the map, which likely explains why we hold the dubious honor of having 567,032 deaths out of a worldwide death toll of 3,013,818, or more than 18 percent of all deaths with less than 5 percent of the world’s population. If you want a polar opposite example, consider New Zealand with arguably the most rigorous pandemic lockdowns. While Sweden clocks in at 134 deaths per 100,000, New Zealand held their numbers to 0.53 deaths per 100,000.
Comparing Sweden to an island is an extreme example so let’s limit the comparison to the Scandinavian countries of Denmark (42 deaths per 100,000), Norway (13 deaths per 100,000) and Finland (16.7 deaths per 100,000). Not only did Sweden experience 5.6 times higher average rate of mortality, but they experienced virtually no economic benefit from their “herd immunity” policy. Notably, when Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf spoke about how his country was doing with the pandemic, he said that their approach ‘has failed’ (Dec. 17). Simply put, Sweden blew it.
Maybe Courtney is correct to argue that we were too conservative by locking down schools last fall. Fortunately, COVID-19 has spared this demographic, although had children been a significant source of spread, their families and teachers would have been impacted (this isn’t just about the children). Given a chance to replay history, I think a lot of people would still pick the conservative path of limiting risk to children and their families.
So, Courtney’s views were freely expressed in the press even when plenty of his arguments have been ill-defined or not well supported by the data. Should such opinions be published? Absolutely. For what it is worth, I even argue that Courtney is free to claim that the world rotates in the opposite direction, but that doesn’t mean such an idea deserves our time or attention.
Call (he/him) is a microbiologist and father of three. He first discovered the Palouse 37 years ago.
