But up to a few weeks ago, it seemed that Sweden's policy of not introducing any measures that weren't long-term sustainable had worked kindof ok. It certainly hadn't been a complete disaster. People will point out that Sweden did worse than its immediate neighbours who locked down more. But Sweden also did better than places like the UK and USA who locked down more. There are probably many factors to that (e.g. Sweden has a high proportion of people who live on their own etc).
But the Sweden data (until a few weeks ago) did point to the idea that some sort of herd immunity might be achievable, perhaps due to latent T-cell immunity from other coronaviruses. Not conclusively, but it was an interesting data point to discuss if anyone was able to keep an open mind about it.
(Side note : and here's the important point for people involved in the Dem/Rep battle over Sweden - if Sweden was having success with their covid policy, that success could only have been understood in the context of Sweden’s highly developed welfare state and social system: universal healthcare, paid sick leave, paid leave to care for sick kids, subsidized daycare & pre/after-school care. The USA barely has any of those things.)
Anyway if you read the linked article, there's a graph halfway down showing a massive second wave in Sweden, much bigger than the first, and so now they are having to lock down more.
But hopefully its all moot now anyway becasue we have multiple vaccine candidates on the way.
edit: yes of course vaccine distribution is going to take some time