Sweden’s top infectious disease expert has opposed recommending face masks to the general population – claiming it is “extremely dangerous” if people believe the coverage will only stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Anders Tegnell, chief epidemiologist at the Swedish Public Health Agency, has repeatedly expressed skepticism that face masks will have controls, reports the Financial Times.
“It’s very dangerous to believe that face masks will change the game when it comes to COVID-19,” said Tengell, who is considered the equivalent of Dr. Land. Anthony Fauci of the White House COVID-19 Task Force.
He noted that countries with widespread mask survival, such as Belgium and Spain, were still seeing increasing virus rates.
“Face masks can be a complement to other things when other things are safely in place,” he said. “But to start with face masks and then think you can follow your buses or your shopping malls – that’s definitely a mistake.”
He completely ruled out wearing masks last month, saying: “With numbers in Sweden declining sharply, we see no point in wearing a face mask in Sweden, not even on public transport.”
Tegnell claimed that evidence about the effectiveness of using a face mask was “surprisingly weak”.
“I’m surprised we don’t have any more or better studies showing what effect masks actually have,” he told the UK Times.
The infectious disease expert is facing backlog after the nation controversially refused to shut down, leading to a higher death rate per capita than neighboring countries that took strict action.
Sweden has recorded at least 85,000 cases, including more than 5,800 deaths, according to the latest figures from Johns Hopkins University.
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