Sweden, unlike other countries, adventurously adopted herd immunity policy against Covid-19. This has proved to be catastrophic with the passage of time.

As of now Sweden's death rate due to Covid-19 is 7.2% which is higher than the USA and all its neighboring European countries. Due to this death rate and a rapid increase in cases the economy is also adversely affected as it contracted by 4.5% with the unemployment surging to 9% in the country.

Sweden is the largest northern country in Europe by area and has a population of about 10.2 million. Sweden chose and advocated the unorthodox approach of herd immunity against the Coronavirus infection.

Some other countries also fancied their chances by initially adopting this strategy but soon they adopted policies of complete or partial lockdown when cases started to surge rapidly. One noteworthy mention is the United Kingdom which chose herd immunity strategy and kept everything open for weeks but then changed their plan of action and opted for lockdown. This change helped them as they were able to successfully flatten the COVID curve.

Herd immunity is the resistance to the spread of an infectious disease within a population that results if a sufficiently high proportion of individuals (60-70% of the population) are immune to the disease, either by a vaccine or by getting natural immunity after contracting the infection. These immunized individuals then also provide indirect protection to the remaining non-immunized population.

Sweden's top epidemiologist Anders Tegnell is the brains behind the selection of this controversial approach of country. Following this approach, Sweden government led by Prime Minister Stefan Löfven didn't implement lockdown at all. All the businesses and schools remained open. There was a huge discouragement approach led by local politicians to not wear masks at all.

This decision proved to be horrific for Swedes. With death toll exceeding 5,600, Sweden has the highest number of fatalities in the region. In fact, its death count is 4-5 times that of the remaining Nordic countries (Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland) combined.

As the viral cases and deaths surged in the country, Tegnell now regrets his decision. He said that with the knowledge we have today about Covid-19, he would have advised a different approach. He admits his mistake and is sorry for the loss of five thousand plus lives due to the viral infection. Now he advises the government to take a different approach as the situation can get worse if they don't change their tactics.