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AGI – The strategy of the Swedish authorities to counter the Covid epidemic has not been successful. In an unusual public stance, the Swedish king Carl XVI Gustaf launched the harsh accusation, given the serious situation that has arisen in the Scandinavian country where infections continue to multiply and the confidence of the population is in free fall.
“The Swedes have suffered tremendously in difficult conditions. I think we have failed, we have a large number of deaths and this is terrible,” he said in a year-end interview on state television Svt. Sweden has taken a soft approach since the beginning of the Covid emergency, refusing to enact strict closures nationwide, but preferring to focus on social distancing and a sense of responsibility while keeping schools, stores, offices and restaurants open.
However, an attempt to create herd immunity, which has collided with the increasing numbers of the epidemic: compared to neighboring Nordic countries, Sweden has so far registered almost 350,000 infections and 7,800 deaths; a mortality rate that is approximately 10 times that of Norway and almost 5 times that of Denmark (Norway accounts for just over 40,000 cases and 402 deaths, Denmark 119,779 and 975).
The second wave has hit hard and hospitals are in troubleSo much so that the two regions of Stockholm and Skane were forced to postpone non-essential operations. According to an Ipsos survey, public support for the line decreed by chief virologist Anders Tegnell, promoter of the soft strategy, fell to 59% (13 points less), the estimate in the national health service ended at 52% of 68 % while confidence in the authorities collapsed to 34%.
But Tegnell remains convinced of the validity of the choice and in a television interview he defended it again, arguing that it is too early to say if it was bankruptcy; however, he acknowledged that he was surprised by the magnitude of the second wave and that some areas are “beginning to reach a breaking point.”
