"In Florida, however, Governor Ron DeSantis took a deeper interest in the Swedish policy of keeping schools open and resisting sweeping lockdowns. Later in the summer, he even hosted a three-hour roundtable with two Stanford scientists, Jay Bhattacharya and Michael Levitt, as well as Swedish epidemiologist Martin Kulldorff. According to official transcripts, the word ‘Sweden’ came up 21 times. And so Sweden and Florida effectively became control groups in the massive experiment that the world had undertaken. The openness of both raised ire in U.S. and international media. Countless stories were written about the perceived irresponsibility of keeping beaches, sports and schools open. Trump may have later reversed his positions on the Covid measures he advocated during those months, but the damage had already been done. Fauci had been elevated to near-divine status, the media became obsessed with case counts, and it proved almost impossible to reopen schools. The race for the Republican nomination increasingly looks like it will be a duel between Trump and DeSantis, and their different positions on Covid lockdowns will likely be scrutinised by Republican primaries voters. As we now know, lockdowns had very little effect on the spread of the virus. Sweden’s excess death numbers during the pandemic were among the lowest in Europe, and lower than 43 U.S. states."
