First off, you also have to look at a country’s expected death rate, based upon population age. It’s not all the same. Italy for example has the oldest (and most vulnerable population) and early on had the highest death rate relative to neighbors. Then you have to look at what percentage of the population was tested etc. Also my point was that there IS NOT “overwhelming “ evidence to favor one approach over the other. If you have those facts, bring it.
Additionally, as difficult as it seems for some to understand, the final event that takes a person’s life that is in a high risk group like immunocompromised individuals or end stage disease like cancer and dementia— is an infection. Pneumonia, , influenza, UTi , etc. relatively healthy individuals dying from COVid are exceptions. This is not the 1918 “Spanish Flu” that wipes out large swathes of healthy individuals at exponentially higher death rates, yet policy seems to be reacting like it is. At that time the death rate was massive.
Lastly: Tell me what economy wouldn’t love to have only a 4.5 % contraction this year? The cratering of our economy has collateral health damage that Sweden isn’t going through— loss of jobs and therefore health benefits, so treating preventable diseases, health screening, etc, all goes backwards—- damage that goes way beyond even the tragic loss of life and health and costs of COVID directly. Since we have a shitty and expensive health care system based mainly upon employer supplied insurance instead of universal health care, we are killing people literally by allowing them to get other diseases, in order to prevent them from the theoretical and relatively lower risk COVID virus, as it relates to those not in the most high risk population. Heart disease, cancer , and diabetes are killing far, far more people, and for those that get laid off from this pandemic and lose coverage, many more will pay the ultimate price.