Tegnell opens for “symbolic” mouthguards

– There may be a role for oral protection at the local level, says Anders Tegnell, who points out that in such cases it is primarily as a “symbolic value” if you have otherwise followed all other guidelines and recommendations.

When Anders Tegnell is asked during the press conference if the Swedish Public Health Agency regrets not having previously had mouth guards in its “toolbox” in the fight against covid-19, he responds:

– No, that mouth guard would protect us in general, there is no sign that it does.

Spread of infection in the home.

– We must remember that the great spread of the infection does not occur in public transport. It happens at work or at home. So we will monitor public transport, absolutely, Anders Tegnell responds, to a question about a possible increased use of public transport in colder weather that will affect the spread of the infection in any way.

On the same subject, he wonders what the Director General of the Public Health Agency, Johan Carlson, means by “organizing the congestion.”

– Now we have to go back when we build our society in the future. Is it really worth having as much congestion on public transport as we are ?, responds Anders Tegnell.

– Creating opportunities to get to and from work without public transport can be such a thing, building public transport in other ways so that there is not so much congestion. I think that many actors should carry that thought with them in the future: how can we build a society in which it is a little easier to keep the distance from what it is today in many places? He continues.

Better follow other restrictions

Johan Carlson has said that it may be relevant to introduce new measures, and then he points to mouth guards as one of them in special situations, which may have a signal value. What do you mean by that?

– If we have an outbreak at the local level to really spread information, now we have an outbreak in this area or workplace. And the fact that everyone walks in a mouth guard means that you also follow other restrictions better than you would have otherwise, especially if you have it for a shorter period, says Anders Tegnell.

If you are facing this now, what is the reason?

– There has been a lot of debate about mouth protection and we want to be clear when we see that mouth protection could play a role in the system that we have established in Sweden.

The Swedish strategy

During the press conference, Anders Tegnell also responded to the question whether the Swedish strategy means that Sweden is better equipped for the fall compared to other countries that have introduced more extensive restrictions on society.

– A long-term strategy for the Swedes to reduce the spread of the infection in a very dramatic way. It may take a little longer before that decline is properly visible. But it also works with the model we have chosen in Sweden, which is a kind of “lockdown”, although it relies much more on voluntary commitments, he says.

– Of course, we hope that this model, being as durable as it is, will help us get through the fall in a slightly easier way than other models, he continues.