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Don’t believe in simple answers, easy solutions to complex tasks Anders Tegnell, the father of the Swedish response to the coronavirus epidemic. He said that China, the United States and European countries wanted to solve the problem in one fell swoop with the big locks, but it was as if they wanted to hit a bird with a hammer.
In early 2020, Anders Tegnell was a not-so-senior civil servant in Sweden, which has a not-so-significant population of 10 million. He headed the office whose job it was to collect public health data. Today, he is one of the most well-known and discredited epidemiology experts in the world. All this is because, under his leadership, Sweden has chosen to be the only one in the world to face the coronavirus crisis with minimal restrictions, the Financial Times begins its report with the expert.
The 64-year-old doctor is ready to help build a public health system in Somalia by 2020 and his office will send questionnaires to Swedes on how they feel in their skin in different segments of their lives. Instead, a pandemic ensued, which in one fell swoop brought its position of focus. He developed and led the highly controversial Swedish crisis management, the essence of which was that schools, restaurants, and gymnasiums did not close in the spring, borders did not close, and China’s general quarantine model was generally rejected.
Hero or monster?
In the eyes of some Swedes, with his method of facing the world, Tegnell has become a hero, while his minority and the outside world believe that Russian roulette is played with society. The first involves an uproar that undoubtedly leads to results that can certainly be called exaggerations: for example, there are those who have tattooed Anders Tegnell’s portrait on themselves. The radical British and American right plays a defender of freedom.
His opponents, for example, in a peculiar way, like his fans, are demanding the head of radical right-wing Swedish democrats. Swedish Democrats, for example, in opposition to the Social Democratic government, have demanded his resignation, noting that Sweden ranks fifth on the list of European countries in terms of per capita deaths from coronavirus, with the Swedish indicator five times higher than neighboring D for Norwegian and Finnish data. Some of the most ardent critics compared Tegnell to Stalin and also received death threats.
The specialist defends his method making it clear from the beginning of crisis management: he proposes sustainable measures. You don’t believe in quick fixes that promise relatively easy success. He expects the coronavirus to stay here with people for a long time, so a system must be built to remedy the problems it causes.
It diminishes, it grows in other places.
The Financial Times interview was conducted in early September when, unlike across Europe, where the number of coronavirus infections increased, the curve indicating this was downward in Sweden. The number of cases fell 90 percent from its June peak and fell under Danish and Norwegian data for the first time in five months. Sometime in the spring, Tegnell said that the effectiveness of crisis management methods will only be visible in the fall, and therefore comparable.
The expert predicts that the spread of the epidemic will remain lower in Sweden, while there will occasionally be local spikes in infection. In other countries, these spikes will be more common and will increase once, unlike them, a level of immunity reached does not stop the spread of the virus.
The application of the unique Swedish model was made possible in part thanks to the decentralization of the country’s political system. In the event of epidemics, the constitution gives the competent chief physician the power to make decisions and condemns the government for its role as a statistician. Therefore, Tegnell was able to determine what to do with a relatively large freedom. At the same time, he told the Financial Times: It relied heavily on the 500-member staff of the Public Health Office, the government apparatus and the support of the population.
False analogy
Tegnell categorically rejects the comparison that the only other country that has responded to the coronavirus in Europe with flexible crisis management is Belarus. There the reins were cast between the horses, while the Swedish method is based on many tests and the interventions carried out on the basis of it. At the same time, he apparently rejects the method of other European countries, which is similar to trying to kill a bird with a hammer.
According to him, it is unsustainable to alternate the drastic quarantine with the opening, which could be followed by another tightening. It is not possible to open or close schools and restaurants. You can try once or twice, but for a long time this is not a viable option. To see far fewer people wearing masks in Sweden than anywhere else, what Tegnell explains is that wearing a mask is also one of the methods that promises a quick and easy solution that doesn’t work. This does not mean that known methods should be discarded. They should only be applied in a proportionate way, such as the fact that stores or restaurants limit the number of people in their facilities.
The most serious charge
A spokesman for the Financial Times asked Tegnell if he was not concerned about being criticized for saying that more people died in nursing homes in Sweden than in neighboring countries due to lax management of the crisis. According to the expert, there is a danger, but your previous experience will help you deal with this situation. Working in a hospital, he saw a simple flu pandemic overwhelming the healthcare system. Working in Africa during the Ebola epidemic, he saw how certain diseases can put two shoulders on health systems and take on the impact they can have on societies if they have neck problems.
It considers the protection of schools and school-age children to be the most important thing. If educational institutions can control the spread of a pathogen that threatens a serious disease like coronavirus, it is more than half the battle. If this fails, sick age groups will grow whose members have a shorter average age. This, of course, is not forgotten when deciding whether to close schools or not.
Did not regret
Finally, the reporter also asked if, looking back, the professional would do something different today compared to the decisions he made. Based on the cautious answer, Tegnell isn’t sure much will change.
As for the future, the Swedish scientist also insists on his previous position on vaccination: countries, experts and politicians who believe that it will solve problems in one fell swoop will be disappointed. He said again: he doesn’t believe in easy solutions to complicated problems. People cannot simply go back to their previous lives if a coronavirus vaccine exists. This message, which is no stranger to most politicians, is dangerous.
We can learn from the third world
Anders Tegnell had an average childhood by Swedish standards until his family moved to Ethiopia at the age of 12. This change, he admits, has touched me deeply. He met his Dutch wife in the United States during his college years, after which they traveled the world. His professional development was greatly influenced by his involvement in the development of a vaccine led by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Laos and in the fight against Ebola in Zaire in 1995. Partly as a result of these, he learned the need to comprehensively address public health. The competent Swedish office not only deals with communicable diseases, but also considers public health as an important social subsystem.
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