The problem with comparing Sweden to any country that implemented...
...lockdowns is that Sweden is so far ahead of most everyone else with regard to the virus' progression through the population that real-time comparisons simply don't provide useful information. Looking at the number of deaths per capita really isn't helpful because the pandemic is still ongoing, and countries that implemented lockdowns are going to see increases in COVID cases (and deaths) as soon as restrictions are eased (which is already happening as noted in the article), whereas Sweden seems to be coming out of the worst of it. According to the link below, Sweden has had a total of 25 deaths in the past 2 weeks. So they are WAY ahead of the neighboring countries to which this article compares them.
The bottom line is that it's simply too soon to make any conclusions about whether Sweden's strategy was correct or not. My hunch is that in the end, their death total per capita will be similar to everywhere else once the virus runs its course through all other countries. And I have a feeling Sweden's economy will bounce back quickly - perhaps more quickly than those countries who instituted prolonged lockdowns. But it's too early to draw any conclusions one way or another.
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In response to this post by NJHokie74)
Link: Sweden - cumulative deaths by date
Posted: 08/23/2020 at 09:34AM