As I've posted on the pinned thread, they did do "far, far worse" with their very hands off approach, but to see it one has to do the right comparisons. Sweden should really be compared to their Nordic neighbors, Finland and Norway, as all three have similar population densities and cultures, but had quite different approaches to COVID as Finland/Norway instituted much stricter controls for awhile and it paid off well, as both have <1/10th the deaths, per capita, as Sweden.
Sweden even has 5-6X the death rate of their Nordic neighbor Denmark, which is 6X more densely populated. There's no way in hell Sweden should be in the death per capita range of the worst European countries, like Italy, Spain, and the UK, all of whom have much greater densities. This is also why Germany stands out, as their deaths per capita are far less than their densely populated peers.
Sweden is obviously doing much better now in terms of current very low rates of cases/deaths, much more in line with Norway and Finland. Distancing is built in to the culture somewhat and reports of even more distancing have been made, but the reasons for their decline are not quite clear, since masks aren't worn by that many in the population.
Country......Cases/1MM.......Deaths/1MM........Tests/1MM.....Density (per sq mi)
Sweden...........7896.....................567.....................80K.....................56
Finland............1339......................59............. .........63K....................43
Norway............1691......................47.......................80K....................41
Denmark.........2353......................106....................257K..................345
Germany.........2492......................110.....................95K....................576
Italy.................4088......................581....................110K...................532
UK...................4451......................677....................232K..................727
Spain...............7112......................608....................142K..................243
