Originally Posted by
Burney
Most of these comparisons are - as you say - meaningless. However, they are useful in terms of trying to discern the possible reasons for the discrepancies later on. Now Sweden's calculation - which so far appears to be correct - is that their demographics and geography allowed them to trade a few thousand deaths more than their neighbours for keeping the economy going.
Perfectly reasonable and rational thing to do, but to compare that with the UK, where a similar strategy would certainly resulted in a much sharper spike in deaths (possibly 100,000-ish by now), hospitals overwhelmed and pictures of bodies stacked in hospital corridors is unhelpful an ignores the wider factors.