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On Friday, Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Löfven announced a further tightening of the country’s crown measures towards Christmas.
The new measures go into effect on Christmas Eve and include a maximum limit of four people, compared to eight, for groups visiting restaurants.
From then on, all the alcohol supply will also stop at 8:00 p.m., upper secondary school students will receive registration at home until January 24, and it is recommended to use a mask on public transport “when you cannot avoid the congestion”.
So Sweden failed
– It has failed
The Swedish management of the crown has come under fire from various quarters, most recently from the country’s king himself, Carl Gustaf.
– I consider that we have simply failed, and that is terrible. The Swedish people have suffered greatly, he said in an interview with SVT on Thursday morning.
The Swedish crown commission itself is also critical of management, especially in caring for the elderly.
Jörn Klein, professor of microbiology and infection control at the University of Southeast Norway, thinks it is too late for the Swedes to turn around.
– The Swedes have definitely chosen the wrong strategy, and even if they turn around now, they will obviously die more in the next time, he tells Dagbladet.
The professor of social medicine at NTNU, Steinar Westin, is also unkind in his verdict on the handling of the Swedish crown.
– If you release the infection first, so that an untraceable infection enters society at a level that Sweden arrived early, then it is too late to pull the emergency brake, he tells Dagbladet.
Twice as bad as feared
– Thanks Guldvog
Westin believes that the “weak” handling of the first wave Swedes has had long-lasting ripple effects.
– I thank Our Lord – and Guldvog – for pressing the big red button for closure on March 12th. That was what saved us. It was the right assessment at the right time, he says.
ROSES GULDVOG: NTNU professor of social medicine Steinar Westin believes the March 12 shutdown is a large part of the explanation for why the pandemic has behaved differently in Norway than in Sweden. Photo: Private
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If the Swedes had done the same, they could, according to Westin, have cracked down on the undetectable infection in six weeks. But now the train is gone, he thinks.
– Such a closure today could probably stop the infection that has devastated Swedish society. But before, there has been no political will to do so. And yet they cannot protect the elderly or hospital staff.
Respond to the king’s criticism
– Seriously
Norway’s shutdown on March 12 also had a signal effect that Westin believes has been absent in Sweden.
– He sent a strong signal that he is now serious, boys and girls. This is not something we can joke about. It is not a “mildly severe flu” where we just have to “flatten the basket.”
Once the infection is loose in Swedish society, the effect of the measures in question is limited, he believes.
– In Sweden, there was no political leadership behind these decisions. Tegnell and the Public Health Authority were left alone. They have different legislation than Norway, the government is not in the habit of interfering in such professional matters, he says, adding:
– They’ve been thinking this was the right strategy all along, but when even the king gets up and says this went wrong, they’ll probably start to see it differently.
– We want them infected
– Sympathy for the fraternal people
He emphasizes that the Swedes, in his opinion, have gradually gone the right way.
– But the problem is that they never had a March 12. That is why many Swedes have never understood seriousness. When you don’t see people dying, and you’re not even near hospitals, people don’t realize how dangerous the virus is.
However, he believes that Friday’s measures are a step in the right direction.
– I have a lot of sympathy for the brothers and I feel both for Tegnell and for the Swedes. We must not harass them.
Blame it on the British crisis
Answered for sacrifice commission
On Tuesday, the Swedish Crown Commission released its first interim report on how authorities and politicians have handled the pandemic and the effect it has had on the elderly.
– The care of the elderly was not prepared and was not equipped to deal with a pandemic.
This is how the Swedish Commission summarizes its assessment of the spread of infection in the care of the elderly. Dagens Nyheter wrote.
– It is about not having acted quickly enough and that the care of the elderly was not prepared for a pandemic, professor and commission member Mats Thorslund told SVT on Tuesday.
ANSWERED: Swedish state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell. Photo: Tt / Reuters / NTB News Agency
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– You must take responsibility
According to NTB, when Löfven met with the press on Tuesday, he had the following to say about the overwhelming criticism:
– This government, and previous governments, must assume responsibility that, in general, the care of the elderly is not sufficiently equipped.
When asked by Aftonbladet on the same day if Sweden could have done something different during the pandemic, Löfven replied as follows:
– I’ll wait until the big picture is clear. Individual points have already been made about where we could have been better. For example, elderly care has been criticized and we are taking action on the next budget.
State epidemiologist Anders Tegnell himself took the magazine by mouth in an interview with P1 Morgon, reproduced by Expressen.
– Now we are not the ones who supervise, it is other authorities and the activities themselves that do it. “We made it very clear that the elderly were vulnerable and that all actors must work hard to improve that situation, so that they are not exposed to the spread of infection,” he said.
Storm vs. Corona SMS
Hoping to improve
However, Tegnell welcomed the commission’s report.
– In more research and reports, we will see what everyone could have done better to prevent this. I think it is good that now you point out the problems that have existed in the care of the elderly. We can only hope this leads to a comprehensive improvement, he added.
During a press conference on Thursday, he was asked about the king’s remarks.
– It is obvious that the number of deaths is regrettable, and we will definitely have to work to try to understand how we can improve to prevent it from happening again. Whether we call it a failure or not, I think we should leave it to those who investigate this question in the future, he replied, but did not want to comment on the criticism directly.
