“Thank you for reminding me,” Swedish state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell replied impassively when Observer asked in late March how he managed the knowledge he would be to blame for if Sweden’s decision to give up a closure went wrong.
“But seriously,” he continued, “I might look like a figurehead, but the Swedish agencies are working hard as a whole. That’s not something I decide alone in my office every morning.”
The message was clear. He did not believe that he would be held responsible if the Covid-19 regime failed with a light touch associated with his name.
On Friday, when Sweden registered 9,654 new cases and 100 deaths, the country’s prime minister, Stefan Löfven, suggested he might be right.
“This number of victims, of course, we wanted to avoid. It’s nothing you want to see, “he said, announcing the end of Sweden’s long hurdle against recommending face masks.” But … the responsibility here is not so easy, pointing out exactly one person [and say] “you are responsible.” “
When Tegnell reported Boris Johnson in late September, it still seemed possible that the high spread of the infection in Sweden in the spring would grant enough immunity to make it easier to control a second wave.
Now, those hopes have faded, with the level of new daily cases, hospitalizations and deaths once again above what is seen in the country’s Nordic neighbors, Dr. the British and American media.
But the change of opinion in Sweden is even more pronounced. This is partly due to the failure of the Tegnell Public Health Agency to anticipate the severity of the second wave, in part due to the condemnatory reports of the country’s health and coronavirus surveillance commission, and in part to more critical media.
Even the country’s king, Carl XVI Gustaf, described the country’s management of the pandemic as “a failure” in the royal family’s Christmas review of the year.
“Opinion in Sweden has really changed: there is widespread criticism of the strategy and [a sense] that we really failed, ”said Jenny Madestam, an associate professor of politics at Stockholm Södertorn University.
In March and April, the media tended to defend rather than criticize the authorities, with dissident investigators sounding the alarm in early April in the pages of the debate as “sellers of crown scandals. ”And“ a shame for Sweden ”.
Eva Burman, editor-in-chief of the regional Eskilstuna-Kuri , recalls how his shocking revelations in May about how he was denied hospital treatment to elderly people in care homes were ignored.
“This story was never published in the other articles: I think maybe it was such a big story that they couldn’t accept it. They thought maybe it wouldn’t be true,” he said. “I don’t know why the Swedish media has been so slow in asking critical questions.”
But according to Marina Ghersetti, an associate professor of journalism at the University of Gothenburg, this is typical of how the Swedish media operate in a crisis. “This is a pattern we have seen before. At first, when everything is uncertain and chaotic, the focus is on … transmitting the information that public authorities give to the media, without really questioning it, ”he said.
“One possible explanation for this is that even the media share the great confidence we have in the public authorities.”
Only once the situation becomes more stable does the Swedish media, almost equal, become critical and begin to investigate. “We have that expression,‘ herd behavior, ’a kind of consensus: when one person actually starts examining and researching, the others do the same,” Ghersetti said.
“All the big newspapers, radio and television, have really started to delve into it, and not just in the conditions of the residences, but also in the strategy.”
This month, Sweden’s health and social care inspectorate reported “serious deficiencies” in the treatment of the elderly, confirming the history of the Burman document.
Swedish mortality rate
Only one in 20 suspected coronavirus patients had visited a doctor physically. Several regions had issued guidelines ordering that no resident of the nursing home receive hospital treatment for any illness or injury. Some doctors had recommended palliative care without even looking at patient records.
The country’s first coronavirus commission report, released on Tuesday, then drew scathing criticism of both the government and the Public Health Agency, saying they had not “protected” the elderly.
Despite its very close competence, which is limited to investigating deaths in care homes, the commission criticized the strategy, arguing that “the only major factor behind … the high number of deaths in residential care is the general spread of the virus society ”.
Public confidence in Tegnell has now fallen to 59%, the lowest level since the pandemic began, according to an Ipsos poll last week. In October, it had the support of 72% of respondents.
Asked if she or anyone else should resign, Health Minister Lena Hallengren pointed to Sweden’s fragmented health system. The responsibility for daily health care lies with the 21 regions, and with care for the elderly in the municipalities. Opposition parties, he added, supported the strategy during the spring and summer.
“It would be easy to say,‘ it’s me, or it’s him or it’s her, ’but we’re in the middle of a pandemic and trying to make this solution extremely easy [demanding resignations], which is not a solution and does not provide us with a better care sector for the elderly, I don’t know ”.
Both Burman and Madestam said the resignations would finally come, and Madestam predicted that Tegnell’s boss, Johan Carlson, who would retire in October, could step down.
“We haven’t seen the end,” Burman agreed. “I think Christmas will cause an even stronger curve and we will have even more deaths. I think someone will have to resign. Otherwise, we are sending our society a very strong signal that no one is responsible.