– Our handling has been relatively successful – NRK Urix – Foreign news and documentaries

The state epidemiologist wanted to share his views and future predictions with the Swedish population. It has done so through an article in the Swedish newspaper Dagens Industri.

The article was published on Christmas Eve.

Tegnell begins by recounting how he lived through the dramatic days of March. Then the first cases of infection were discovered in Sweden. The country was affected by the corona pandemic.

– When it arrived in Sweden, it did not come from China, but from different places at the same time, writes Tegnell.

According to Tegnell, Sweden was hit hard because many brought the virus from abroad. During February and March, about a million Swedes traveled to foreign risk areas. Tegnell points out the infections from Italy and Austria in particular, but also mentions China and Iran.

– In a short time, we expanded through society. Then we focus on limiting the spread of the infection as much as possible. This was relatively successful, except in caring for the elderly, Tegnell believes.

The state epidemiologist aims to bring the coronavirus to various institutions of the Swedish age. There it spread among the elderly residents. In many cases, they were infected by their caretakers.

Tegnell believes this is much of the reason why the death toll in Sweden has become so high.

So far, almost 8,300 Swedes have died from the coronavirus. That means 817 deaths per one million inhabitants. In Norway, 77 deaths have been recorded for every million inhabitants. In this country, 421 people have died from the coronavirus.

Uncertain about 2021

Anders Tegnell will not predict what 2021 will be for the Swedes.

– Most of the forecasts have been proven wrong. This virus continues to amaze us. It is therefore difficult, almost impossible, to predict how 2021 will unfold, writes Tegnell in his article.

He believes that Swedes must learn to live with the coronavirus.

– Covid-19 is here to stay. Many of the measures introduced will likely be relevant next year as well, Tegnell believes.

Still expect the restrictions to feel less and less. The population will eventually learn to live with them.

Tegnell believes that it is difficult to say exactly what the consequences will be. He believes that the measures will continue to affect the working life, travel and daily life of Swedes.

I did not understand the seriousness

Sweden has received strong criticism for its handling of the corona pandemic. It was a long time before the Swedes introduced intervention measures. Neighboring countries, like Norway, shut down much of society. Sweden tried to keep the society as before.

This generated much criticism, also internally in Sweden.

As early as April, one of Sweden’s leading pandemic experts warned that the Swedes were heading for tragedy.

Professor Björn Olsen from the University of Uppsala claimed that the Swedish authorities did not understand anything about gravity. Olsen warned that Sweden could have thousands of victims of the crown.

– The pandemic looms like a tidal wave over us. It is like a wall of infection. We will have very high death rates in Sweden, Olsen told NRK on April 7.

He was correct.

Löfven thinks he was wrong

Björn Olsen claims that the Swedish authorities are still not handling the pandemic well enough. At the same time, he believes that the coronavirus has spread much more than was possible to predict. Even skeptics like him did not see the gravity of the situation.

In an interview with SVT on Wednesday, Olsen says it was too long before Prime Minister Stefan Löfven took the situation seriously. When the second wave of infection was on its way this summer, Löfven spoke about the fact that he, like Anders Tegnell, still believed in herd immunity.

Therefore, there was no need for stricter measures.

– It’s a question of which crystal ball the Prime Minister looked at, but I think it was pretty murky in any case. Many announced an increase in the spread of the infection as we entered fall, says Olsen.

Along with several other Swedish infection experts, he has repeatedly stated that Swedish coronary treatment has not been successful. They have claimed that stricter measures are needed.

To limit the spread of the infection, they have believed that Sweden should have been partially closed for a period.

In Sweden, there has been a heated debate about the handling of corona. Those who have wanted tougher measures have met with much resistance.

At the same time, the scope of handling criticism has increased. This has happened in line with the increase in the number of deaths.

In the interview “The Year with the Royal Family”, even the Swedish king was critical. King Karl Gustaf was aware that Sweden had made fatal mistakes.

– I think we have failed. We have many who have died. It’s awful. This is something that we all suffer from, the king told SVT.

I don’t want a mask

However, the handling of the corona pandemic by the Swedish authorities has had wide support in a large part of the population.

The use of masks and other measures to limit the spread of the infection is still not as common in Sweden as in neighboring countries.

This summer, several Swedes told NRK how they spit on them if they appeared in public with a bandage.

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