A political scientist and two economists walk into a room and setup that headline. Sounds like this one needs some critical examination from expert sources before it's taken for anything.
My results show that a large share of the excess mortality in Sweden in April 2020 may be partially explained by a vulnerable, elderly population due to very mild flu seasons in 18/19 and 19/20 as well as very few deaths during the 2019 summer compared to earlier years and compared to other Nordic countries.
My results illustrate – and I cannot stress this enough – that plain coincidences may be important when understanding the COVID-19-death toll in a country compared to national lockdown policies.
Note: Funding: I work for a libertarian think tank in Denmark. The funding is mostly undisclosed - even for employees - except for a few charitable foundations.
Conflict of Interest: None.
[0] https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3702595