Some of the comments here are missing the point. Yes, Sweden has more deaths than it's neighbors. But obviously that's true... they didn't lock down. The issue

Some of the comments here are missing the point. Yes, Sweden has more deaths than it's neighbors. But obviously that's true... they didn't lock down. The issue is that lockdowns can only last so long. The initial hope was that we can quickly find an effective treatment for this virus, but so far, that's looking unlikely. Hydroxycloriquine and Remdesivir were the best hopes and in controlled studies, they aren't showing effectiveness. While an effective treatment is still possible, it will likely require a new drug to be developed and tested, which is a far more time consuming process than using a drug that is already approved for other uses (since you already understand the side effects). Meanwhile, a vaccine is still a year or two away according to most experts, if we ever find one at all (some viruses are very hard to find vaccinations for). So eventually, countries will need to lift their lockdowns. People in democracies are already getting restless. And once that happens, rates of infections will go up, and countries that have had very low death rates so far due to lockdowns will start to see their numbers climb. Meanwhile, Sweden will have already had a large share of their population who already had the virus and are (hopefully) immune to it, at least short term. That said, Sweden's strategy might not work for every country even if it ends up working for them. They have a very strong healthcare system and a relatively healthy population. Other countries may not fare so well.