Tegnell: focus on the main message – Sydsvenskan

State epidemiologist Anders Tegnell believes the issue of public transportation has received too much attention. Stock Photography.Image: Amir Nabizadeh / TT

When the Public Health Agency introduced particularly harsh advice for five regions, it gave examples of specific situations and places that should be avoided. Gothenburgers can still go to the gym, but are urged to refrain from doing so. And in Skåne you should avoid public transport, but if necessary, you can take the bus.

TT: Do you understand if you get confused?

– It gets confusing if you want it to be confusing. I don’t think people in general have a hard time understanding that they have to meet fewer people, says state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell.

For him is it is clear that all new councils are aimed at one thing only.

– Now it is important to focus on our main message, with which we try to be extremely clear: that you should reduce your new social contacts.

But there is no general way to get the Swedes to reduce their contact, according to Tegnell. It is different for different people. Some may meet other people at the mall, some at parties, while others meet at the gym.

– It may mean that you as a person need to stop going to the gym, because you know that you meet a lot of people there, but it is not like that for everyone, he says.

The call of the state epidemiologist is not to get caught up in the details of the advice.

– There is always a great risk that you will end up with part of the problem and forget it all. A bit like public transport that has been talked about a lot. I think public transportation has gotten too much attention because there isn’t much to suggest that there is a large spread of the infection right there, he says.

TT: Why do you keep choosing to go out with examples like gyms and public transportation? So, was it not enough just to get the main message across?

– I think you need the examples to create an understanding.

The new advice does not contain any domestic travel advice, as in the spring. But in practice, it will remain a kind of travel advice, according to the state epidemiologist.

– The new municipalities have a great impact on travel. I don’t see that it is possible to follow the new advice and at the same time go to another part of Sweden and visit relatives, he says.

Tegnell says that advice should preferably be as few, precise and clear as possible. Once again, it reminds us of the main message of reducing new social contacts.

– Basically no problem if you go to Gothenburg without meeting someone there and then come home. It is the new contacts that are the problem, not the journey.

TT: But if I go to Gothenburg, the probability that I will meet people that I would not have otherwise met is very high. So a travel tip isn’t clearer?

– We are discussing it. But in the first instance, the regional councils deal with what to do at home, where the wide spread of the infection occurs.

That depends of each to interpret how the advice of the Public Health Agency should be practiced is something that characterizes the Swedish crown strategy and that Anders Tegnell wants to stick to.

– We can see what has happened when things have been banned in many other countries. This is not a good way. Sooner or later it creates resistance because you don’t understand why you have so many limitations in your life, he says.

– During the spring, in fact, we have managed to reduce social contacts very well by generating understanding and this is the line with which we want to continue working.