From what I've read Sweden's death rate is high because of two major factors. 1. Care homes (which have suffered everywhere in UK and mainland Europe, possibly everywhere, I don't know) and 2. Immigrant populations who live in poverty and/or don't speak Swedish, and don't have the same almost innate culture of swiftly and smoothly complying with government suggestions.
Whenever people bring up Sweden's high death rate per million (currently 396) why does nobody mention Belgium (currently 797)?
Belgium did a lockdown and has a population 1.5 million people larger than Sweden. Perhaps it's fun to attack Sweden because they're different, and it's painful to acknowledge Belgium because in doing so suddenly the pro-lockdown argument is weakened.
I've even seen this text on the website of the Telegraph, which is an English broadsheet newspaper
According to figures collated by the Our World in Data website, Sweden had 6.08 deaths per million inhabitants per day on a rolling seven-day average between May 13 and May 20.
This is the highest in the world, above the UK, Belgium and the US, which have 5.57, 4.28 and 4.11 respectively.
Basically it's saying that if we look at figures from just one week, which ended on Friday, Sweden is the worst! OMG! They're so bad!
I'm sure we could find a week in the past 6 months where the US or Brazil had no cases. What does that even mean? Nobody cares how a nation "performed" for 1 week or even 1 month. It's going to be about what happened over a minimum of 12 months when we get to, say, 2022 and look back at this entire thing from beginning to end (I don't think there will actually be an end per se). This is just journalists trying to fill "column inches" with more Sweden bashing.
I actually don't think various countries are that different in practice. They might be on paper, but when it comes to what's happening out there on the streets and in the parks and urban areas, it's all pretty much the same.
@frugalnacho said that Sweden are in a defacto state of lockdown because its people don't want to die. That's the same with everyone on the planet who lives somewhere wealthy enough and advanced enough that they are able to use the internet to work from home. In Austria and Norway, people are staying at home because they don't want to die. Equally in Austria and Norway I'm sure that somewhere, COVIDiots are out and about meeting up in large groups and breaking the rules because they think they're untouchable.
In the UK, if lockdown was 100% lifted tomorrow, I'd remain on my own personal "lockdown" for another month or two because I don't want to die. I also don't want to survive it and come out of the other side with debilitating permanent damage to my lungs etc.
Regardless of what your government says, if you live in a democracy, the buck ultimately stops with you as the individual, regardless of whether or not the lockdown is enforced with prison sentences and fines. Look at it this way, why have we not seen anti-lockdown protests like we did in parts of the US in other countries like Germany or Canada? Equally, why didn't the police send in SWAT teams to deal with the armed protestors in parts of the US? Surely, if the government has "locked down" they should enforce it right? Otherwise, how are you any different from Sweden?
You can have a softer approach like Sweden, where the government "recommends" or "suggests" that people do stuff, or you can have a harder approach where the government "tells" people to do stuff, but in the end, how things actually play out on the ground is no different. No
democracy has a police force so big/brutal that they can put a cop on every street corner in the nation and ensure that nobody goes outside for fear of being arrested, beaten or shot. It's ultimately about people being concerned enough for their own health that they adhere to the guidance.
As others have mentioned, there are many countries where war, corruption, poverty, crime, starvation and lack of clean water are bigger concerns than COVID-19 will ever be, so they have to carry on regardless. The governments in those countries can issue the same guidelines as Sweden, the US or Australia, but because of circumstances, people are far less likely to adhere to them because they have been facing enormous hardship day in, day out for the past 50+ years that put this pandemic in the shade.