> Even if the decision proves beneficial, it was an error
That's subjective: It depends on how much risk you're willing to take on. People here were pretty supportive of the policy, so presumably willing to take on more risk than you. Like you, I wasn't but that's just how it goes.
Not sending kids to school, eliminating social interactions, shutting down businesses, this was the drastic unknown experiment not the other way around. The effects are becoming more apparent now and I'm sure there will be a lot written about the subject in the future. Gloating doesn't seem appropriate at this point but sure after a year of the world screaming how bad we handled it maybe a Swedish moderate amount of national pride is warranted.
One interesting, and quite unexpected, effect was on the suicide rate in the United States. Specifically, the fact that it has declined slightly. This is especially surprising given the seemingly inexorable rise on that same rate for decades. We are only now starting to see analysis of this data, and while I hardly think that this is enough to make any sizable statements about lockdowns, it's also certainly not the case that we know they were more harmful than unchecked covid.
Wow, looks like closer to 30% in the US. Interesting that suicides went down and overdoses went up, I wonder how you would go about disentangling those numbers.
I don't know what model you're using in order to be able to say that and I don't have any way to quantify it either but clearly some people are willing to jump off cliffs without knowing whether there's spikes or a mattress below and it's obvious that they're willing to take more risk than people who aren't, so your quantification point is moot.
> When faced with a cataclysmic, albeit low probability, event, the only course of action is the cautious one.
This is nothing but extreme risk aversion. Some people, most, do not share it with you.
That's subjective: It depends on how much risk you're willing to take on. People here were pretty supportive of the policy, so presumably willing to take on more risk than you. Like you, I wasn't but that's just how it goes.