> For Sweden the excess deaths almost exactly matches the number of Covid deaths, give or take 10%.
> The statistics are likely completely wrong because different countries use different definitions of "Covid deaths" and different reporting procedures.
And these country's are much in a lockdown still. Norway for example - you're not allowed to travel far north from Oslo. In comparison to many other countries, Sweden's tactic could go on for years while many others would and already have started to give up on theirs.
Norway is actually almost back to normal,except you can't have gatherings of over 200 people. It has been this way for almost a month now, and there have not been any increase in confirmed covid cases yet, which is surprising.
News to me and I've been here in Norway all through the COVID time. There was a period when we were not allowed to spend the night in a holiday home unless it was in the same kommune as one's usual residence but as far as I remember there was never any country wide ban on internal travel. There were a few kommunes who set up border controls that were most likely illegal but that's about it.
And resident status is not relevant here either. As long as you went in to quarantine on entry to the country (was 14 days, now 10), whether resident or not, you are free to travel where you like.
If you know that anything I have said here is incorrect I would appreciate it if you could provide addresses of web pages (Folkehelseinstituttet, osv.) that would set me right.
Because during the worse time, that was the kind of environment being reported around Stockholm. There were not enough people and a universal lack of safety equipment. Many workers also had to rely on the mass transportation system in order to get between homes. Elderly care, both private and state owned, often operate from a single cental point and fan out.
It is not the highest in Europe but it is very noticeable. In contrast, the surrounding countries of Finland, Norway and Denmark show almost nothing.
As for which figures to take, we don't know, they are all wrong. Each country has a different way of counting depending on what they think is important.
For example hospital deaths are very consistent. Hospitals generally have good reporting, testing, etc... good to see daily evolution, but it is an underestimate. Recorded deaths from nursing homes and at home are less reliable. Sometimes, there is no testing, so we are not 100% sure it is COVID, there may also be delays. The picture is now more complete but you lose a bit of consistency. Excess mortality reporting can also have long delays, and it doesn't care about COVID at all, so things like behavior change under lockdown can have an effect, the advantage is that it is the least likely indicator to miss anything.
And if you look at all the numbers, we can split Europe into the bad (Italy, UK, France, Spain, ...) and the good (Norway, Finland, Denmark, ...). And by all metrics, Sweden is in the "bad" camp.