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Stephen Macedo @stephenmacedo.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

An errata statement should post on the book’s web page at Princeton University Press.

Stephen Macedo @stephenmacedo.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

The book has 935 footnotes, but it was not a footnoting error. I believe that on returning to his essay, I interpreted the bolded passage as a pull-quote. I regret this mistake.

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Stephen Macedo @stephenmacedo.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

Yoel Roth, @yoyoel.com, former head of trust and safety at Twitter, points out that In Covid’s Wake misleadingly quotes an essay of his (ch. 4, fn 65). He is right. My error (not my co-author's). I have apologized to him, and do so now, again.

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Stephen Macedo @stephenmacedo.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

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

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Stephen Macedo @stephenmacedo.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

@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

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Stephen Macedo @stephenmacedo.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

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

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Stephen Macedo @stephenmacedo.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

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).

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Stephen Macedo @stephenmacedo.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

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....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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...

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Stephen Macedo @stephenmacedo.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

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

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Stephen Macedo @stephenmacedo.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

@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.

research.abo.fi

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Stephen Macedo @stephenmacedo.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

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!

Pizzato et al, Impact of Covid-19 on total excess mortality in Europe, 2020-2023," Lancet Regional Health Europe July 2024.

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Stephen Macedo @stephenmacedo.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

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?

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