Stephen Macedo
@stephenmacedo.bsky.social
Political Theory, Social Science, and Public Policy, Princeton University.
Trying to seek the truth, wherever it leads.
Stephen Macedo is an American political scientist who serves as the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Politics at Princeton University, where he was the former director at the University Center for Human Values. Macedo served as the president of the American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy from 2018 until 2021. .. more
Political science
63%
Sociology
14%
Stephen Macedo
@stephenmacedo.bsky.social
· Jul 14
We stand by our guarded claim: much uncertainty remains, but Sweden appears to have done well compared with others. And so, given the absence of clear evidence that costly and harmful lockdowns reduced mortality, how can anyone confidently judge them a success? @chrislhayes.bsky.social
Stephen Macedo
@stephenmacedo.bsky.social
· Jul 14
@michaelhobbes.bsky.social is also wrong to say that Swedish public health authorities concluded that their approach was mistaken. They said, with hindsight and more perfect information, they could have done better. No rational person would claim otherwise. @dbmain.bsky.social
Stephen Macedo
@stephenmacedo.bsky.social
· Jul 14
CDC mortality data presented in our book fails to show that US states with more stringent NPIs had lower Covid mortality. Bollyky, et al, using different data reach same conclusion (“Assessing COVID-19 Pandemic Policies,” Lancet 2023), as do Frances Lee and I, and Pizzato et al. See our Ch. 5
Stephen Macedo
@stephenmacedo.bsky.social
· Jul 14
Contra @michaelhobbes.bsky.social the most comprehensive study so far finds Sweden had lowest excess mortality of all 29 countries of Europe over the whole course of pandemic, 2020-23, see Pizzato, et al., “Impact of COVID-19 on total excess mortality...,” Lancet Regional Health – Europe, 2024).
Stephen Macedo
@stephenmacedo.bsky.social
· Jul 14
Comparisons of all-cause mortality between European countries and regions
- Office for National Statistics
All-cause mortality rates of selected European countries and regions. Breakdowns include sex and broad age group for selected countries and cities.
www.ons.gov.uk
data is from the UK Office of National Statistics. www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...
Stephen Macedo
@stephenmacedo.bsky.social
· Jul 14
The Covid‐19 lesson from Sweden: Don't lock down
Covid-19 triggered a wave of lockdowns across the world, contributing to a severe downturn in economic activity. Governments responded by introducing expansionary fiscal and monetary measures. We com...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Rather, “Covid 19 Lesson From Sweden,” Andersson and Jonung in Economic Affairs, Figure 2 shows excess mortality in Sweden running just around 2 percent lower than normal as of June 2021 and moving lower into 2022. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Stephen Macedo
@stephenmacedo.bsky.social
· Jul 14
The Kock et al study that Hobbes links could not possibly have been our source since its title is: “Excess mortality and COVID-19 in Sweden in 2020.” “2020” period. Our quoted claim that Hobbes contests concerns excess mortality in Sweden from January 2020 to June 2021. @ericklinenberg.bsky.social
Stephen Macedo
@stephenmacedo.bsky.social
· Jul 14
https://research.abo.fi/ws/portalfil...”
@michaelhobbes.bsky.social claimed “Pretty egregious error" from our book: "The authors say Swedish deaths fell by 2.3% during the pandemic... But they misread their source: Mortality is only down if you remove the COVID deaths. research.abo.fi/ws/portalfil...” Sorry, but that's not our source.
Hello Blueskyers! Glad to see much discussion of our book, In Covid's Wake, but incorrect info abounds, including by Michael Hobbes and Gregg Gonsalves. Sweden had lowest Covid mortality in Europe according to most comprehensive available study. Let's face our mistakes!
Michael Hobbes is mistaken. The Kolk article he links to is not our source: we don’t cite it. It covers the wrong time period (2020 only). We do cite Johan Anderberg, The Herd, and he got the data from the UK Office for National Statistics. Why not check our footnotes?