Is Sweden a miracle coronavirus model?

The World Health Organization (WHO) has been generous with its praise throughout this pandemic. China, Singapore and Ireland have all received plaudits for their handling of the coronavirus crisis. Now that a new turning point is in sight, with the infection’s spread slowing and draconian lockdown measures being gradually lifted, the WHO is promoting the Swedish way of doing things. “Sweden represents a future model… if we wish to get back to a society in which we don’t have lockdowns,” the WHO’s Mike Ryan said, praising the way Swedes are trusted to “self-regulate.”
Sweden’s hands-off approach to lockdown has certainly been different to that of other countries, from France and Italy to the US and China. Large public gatherings are banned but restaurants and schools have stayed open, and social distancing is encouraged rather than enforced by police. Trust in the public is high, and so is the public’s trust in the strategy. Swedes seem happy with the global attention. “Many countries are starting to come around to the Swedish way,” Anders Tegnell, the country’s chief epidemiologist, told USA Today.
But like so many stories of national exceptionalism in this crisis — the UK at one point was convinced it could avoid strict closures, painting them as unscientific, before eventually doing a U-turn — this one is debatable and premature.
US President Donald Trump, no doubt annoyed at stories in the American media heaping praise on the Swedes, tweeted one obvious riposte, noting the high price that Swedes have had to pay in terms of Covid-19 fatalities. Sweden’s 2,586 deaths compare poorly with Denmark’s 452, and Norway’s 207. Taking population into account, Sweden has suffered more deaths per million people than the US (although deaths aren’t always counted in the same way).
When looking at all-cause mortality — which is probably a better gauge of the real level of coronavirus deaths — Sweden has been hit with “very high”
excess deaths since the start of the year, according to the European body monitoring these
statistics. In Denmark, they’ve been “low.”
The counterargument is that Sweden has accepted more deaths in exchange for trying to achieve group immunity more quickly and protecting its economy from lasting collapse. Several big countries in Europe with stricter lockdowns have suffered more excess deaths and greater economic damage than Sweden while being more aggressive about halting infections. But they felt they had no other way to relieve their overrun hospitals, a problem that Sweden doesn’t have.
We don’t know what other nations might have gone through if they’d followed the Swedish model — France estimates its own lockdown saved 60,000 lives. We also don’t know how much immunity has been acquired by the Swedes.
—Bloomberg