Sweden’s state epidemiologist says world went ‘mad’ in imposing coronavirus lockdown

Dr Anders Tegnell, the man behind Sweden’s coronavirus response, called the lockdowns around the world to contain the infectious disease as a form of “madness”. In a podcast with Swedish Radio, the state epidemiologist defended his advice against such movement restrictions citing “side effects” they often entail.

“It was as if the world had gone mad, and everything we had discussed was forgotten,” said Dr Tegnell.

Sweden has reported 60,837 confirmed cases of coronavirus and over 5,161 deaths related to the infectious disease so far. The deaths in Sweden has been too high compared to the neighbouring countries that imposed strict lockdowns to contain the virus. While Tegnell admitted misjudging the deadly potential of the virus at an early stage, he stood by the strategy of not imposing lockdown.

“The cases became too many and the political pressure got too strong. And then Sweden stood there rather alone,” he said.

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Other Nordic countries like Norway, Finland, and Denmark have together reported less than 29,000 cases of coronavirus and less than 1,200 deaths so far. Dr Tegnell had earlier defended the decision saying the high death toll was mainly due to the elderly homes that failed to keep the virus out.

'Side effects of lockdown'

Tegnell said that strict lockdown could have created other problems like increased domestic abuse, loneliness and mass unemployment. He said that authorities working with a broad spectrum of public health issues are supposed to take the negative aspects into account.

Last month, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven defended the strategy even after more than 3,500 had lost their lives to the deadly virus. Addressing foreign correspondents in Stockholm, Lofven said that many people are staying at home, which has had a positive effect on limiting the spread of the virus.

“Of course, we are painfully aware that too many people have lost their lives due to COVID-19," he added.

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