No lockdowns, but Sweden seems to have controlled Covid

I'm still surprised at how many "Sweden is a success!" stories keep showing up on HN.

The country had TEN TIMES the per capita death rate of its neighbors (IE the countries you'd conpare it to if you want to control for everything except the pandemic response). It also still has the highest unemployment rate of all the Nordic countries and its infected count is rising currently.

Not only that, but Sweden is already a country of "lonely conformists" and have been keeping six feet away from their neighbors long before the pandemic. They would have been the ones where a light lockdown was appropriate and it still didn't give good outcomes.