According to a recent study by the World Health Organization (WHO), Sweden’s defiance of the advice of the COVID experts about imposing lockdowns and implementing mask usage has been proven right.

WHO’s study analyzed the number of deaths directly and indirectly attributed to COVID, and Sweden ended up with one of the lowest death rates in Europe and the world.

The Daily Mail writes:

Of the 194 countries looked at by the UN health agency, Sweden’s pandemic death rate ranked 101st with 56 per 100,000 — well below the average of 90.

It also puts Sweden below most other major European nations that locked down several times, such as Italy (133), Germany (116), Spain (111), Britain (109), Portugal (100), the Netherlands (85), Belgium (77) and France (63).

Sweden was repeatedly attacked for recording some of the highest Covid death rates during the pandemic. But countries were previously judged by Covid death rates alone, which were skewed by differences in testing. 

The Swedish government did not go to the extremes of other countries when it came to lockdowns and only banned large events. It kept schools open, and health officials even discouraged the use of facemasks.

Instead, Sweden relied on its citizens to act responsibly during the pandemic.

It should also be noted that WHO’s COVID death numbers are somewhat subjective. It looked at excess deaths over a typical year, and this included the thousands of people who died because of the lockdowns from such things as a lack of medical care and drug overdoses.

“Sweden’s approach not to interrupt transmission entirely but to reduce the pandemic’s health impact has largely been vindicated by the recent mortality results. Countries with hard lockdowns, such as Peru, ended up with worse outcomes.”

Carl Heneghan, University of Oxford, Daily Mail, May 6, 2022,

READ: How Sweden’s Covid gamble paid off: Scandinavian nation has suffered FEWER deaths in pandemic than majority of Europe – despite defying scientific advice by refusing to impose strict lockdowns