The man behind the much-hyped “Swedish strategy” against COVID-19 is much calmer than in other parts of the world, the Scandinavian country’s former chief epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, explains the measures taken at the time in a book published on Friday, reports AFP and Agerpres.

“We were not some kind of libertarian paradise,” Anders Tegnell said in an interview with French journalists at the headquarters of the publishing house that published the new volume.

“We were just a society trying to find good measures to deal with the situation in the most effective way for us,” he added.

While the new coronavirus caught the whole world by surprise in 2020, and one country after another began to shut down different sectors of their society, one of them stood out: Sweden.

The Scandinavian kingdom chose a more liberal approach. No lockdown, no closed schools, no obligation to wear a hygienic mask. Emphasis was placed on individual responsibility and recommendations. This choice caused heated debates abroad, some considered it a counterexample, while others – opponents of the lockdown – welcomed it.

“It is clear that many people interpreted the voluntary nature of this strategy as a passive approach,” Sweden’s former chief epidemiologist writes in the book. “This is a misunderstanding,” he added.

Achilles’ heel

About the 280-page book, entitled “Tankar efter en pandemi” (“Reflections after the pandemic”), AFP notes that it reflects the character of the Swedish doctor: the wording is neat, pragmatic, each stage of the strategy is analyzed and methodically explained. .

Essentially, “we thought people could take care of themselves,” he says, explaining Sweden’s decision to use guidelines instead of enforcement. “We haven’t forced anyone, but we’ve seen a tremendous level of compliance with our recommendations,” he says.

Becoming, against his will, the symbolic figure of this strategy, Anders Tegnell also spoke of the surprise he felt at the death threats he received, but he wanted to clarify that the majority of Swedes supported him:

“Our administration received so many flowers for the first time!”.

During the first wave of the pandemic, Sweden was one of the worst-hit countries, especially due to the “slaughterhouse” in nursing homes, which claimed 2,780 lives between March 1, 2020 and September 30, 2020, according to official statistics.

In total, 19,543 people have died from COVID-19 in Sweden since the beginning of the pandemic.

A Swedish epidemiologist complains about the “slaughterhouse” in nursing homes

International comparisons are difficult due to different accounting criteria, but Sweden fared better than the EU as a whole, with 2,365 deaths per million inhabitants at the end of October, compared with 2,767 deaths per million, according to data aggregator website Our World in Data. residents

“We really need to improve the quality of care in our nursing homes,” admitted Anders Tegnell, who describes the “disastrous situation” in his book.

At the beginning of the pandemic, the epidemiologist believed that it would be easier to care for the elderly in Sweden than in other parts of Europe, because they are gathered in one well-defined place.

“I was absolutely wrong,” he says. In fact, the lack of resources and necessary skills in nursing homes confirmed his predictions.

Tegnell says a future pandemic is inevitable

Another peculiarity of Sweden during the pandemic: the minimal use of sanitary masks, which was never recommended by the authorities, except on public transport during the second wave.

“Many countries in Asia have been using sanitary masks in public places for decades to limit the spread of the virus during the flu season. Have they been on the wrong track all these years? It was not my job to judge,” says the Swedish doctor.

“But in all the studies, we couldn’t find evidence that it made a difference,” he added.

Wanting humanity to learn some lessons from society’s response to COVID-19, he urges every organization to take stock of this period and document everything.

Answers and conclusions will be valuable, as Anders Tegnell believes that a new pandemic will be inevitable “in the coming decades”.

“In many regions of the world, the population is growing (…) We are starting to live in areas where we have never been before, and in these regions it is very likely that new types of viruses will appear that we have not seen before,” he notes .

Tegnell left his position as Sweden’s chief epidemiologist in March last year, accepting a job at the World Health Organization.