Sweden’s Covid-19 expert calls global lockdowns ‘madness’, even as country registers one of highest death rates

Instead of closing schools, shops and restaurants, Sweden left pretty much everything open throughout the pandemic

The country now has more deaths per 100,000 than the US, according to Johns Hopkins University data

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Students celebrate their high school graduation in Stockholm, Sweden, on June 3. Schools have never been closed in Sweden amid the pandemic. Photo: Reuters

Published: 9:04pm, 24 Jun 2020Updated: 11:10pm, 24 Jun 2020

The man behind Sweden’s controversial Covid-19 strategy has characterised lockdowns imposed across much of the globe as a form of “madness” that flies in the face of what is known about handling viral outbreaks.

Anders Tegnell, Sweden’s state epidemiologist, said he advised against such restrictions on movement because of the detrimental side effects they often entail.

“It was as if the world had gone mad, and everything we had discussed was forgotten,” Tegnell said in a podcast with Swedish Radio on Wednesday. “The cases became too many and the political pressure got too strong. And then Sweden stood there rather alone.”

Tegnell admits he misjudged the deadly potential of the coronavirus in its early stages, but has refused to consider abandoning his strategy. He says restricting movement to the radical extent seen across much of the globe can create other problems, including increased domestic abuse, loneliness and mass unemployment.

State epidemiologist Anders Tegnell of the Public Health Agency of Sweden. Photo: AFP

“In the same way that all drugs have side effects, measures against a pandemic also have negative effects,” he said. “At an authority like ours, which works with a broad spectrum of public health issues, it is natural to take these aspects into account.”

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