As far as I have read
Stricter initial rules saved lives in Denmark and Norway during the pre-vaccine phase (2020–2021). Sweden paid a heavy upfront price in human lives for its voluntary strategy, though its long-term average balanced out significantly.
Sweden avoided some localized retail and hospitality damage early on.
Because Swedes still socially distanced, lost loved ones, and shifted heavily to remote work, their daily life disruptions closely mirrored those of the Danes and Norwegians. Consequently, adult mental health tracking showed minimal systemic divergence between the two cohorts by 2025.
For children though, there was a marked difference.
Sweden’s policy to prioritize keeping schools open yielded clear, quantifiable benefits for the mental health and social development of children compared to the isolated environments experienced by Danish and Norwegian youth.
Thank you for this excellent explanation. I was looking for something similar int he article but it was a train wreck. It felt like it was written by someone with a psychological inability to get to the end of one point before skipping to another.