UK had mandatory lockdowns only after they tried herd immunity which caused the virus to go wild in their population. By the time they had mandatory lockdowns,

UK had mandatory lockdowns only after they tried herd immunity which caused the virus to go wild in their population. By the time they had mandatory lockdowns, infections were already through the roof. In general, scandanivian countries should be much better protected against the virus, all other things being equal. Scandinavian countries tend to have much lower population density, they culturally require more personal space, they have much lower average dwelling occupancy, in fact they have a lot of people living alone in their apartments etc. If you compare Sweden with their Scandinavian neighbors you can see how their coronavirus policies failed. If you compare England with their European neighbors and peers (e.g., France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium), you can see how their policies failed. Comparing Sweden and England is not as instructive. These are two countries that both had failing policies but Sweden did much better because it was better demographically and culturally set up for a pandemic.