Swedish PM
warned over 'Russian roulette-style' Covid-19 strategy
Health
experts say attempt to build herd immunity is a ‘mad experiment with 10m
people’
@jonhenley
Mon 23 Mar
2020 16.13 GMTLast modified on Mon 23 Mar 2020 21.57 GMT
Criticism
is mounting in Sweden of the government’s approach to Covid-19, with experts
warning that its strategy of building broad immunity while protecting at-risk
groups – similar to that initially adopted by the UK – amounted to “Russian
roulette” and could end in disaster.
The prime
minister, Stefan Löfven, on Sunday night called on all Swedes to accept
individual responsibility in stopping the rapid spread of the virus as the
number of patients in intensive care in Stockholm continued to rise sharply.
“There will
be a few decisive moments in life when you must make sacrifices, not only for
your own sake but also for those around you, for your fellow humans and for our
country,” Löfven said in a rare public address. “That moment is now.”
But while
the prime minister said “more invasive decisions” may yet come, he announced no
further restrictions. “Everyone must do their part,” he said. “I understand
it’s frustrating … But right now it is necessary.”
Sweden,
which on Monday reported 2,016 confirmed coronavirus cases and 25 deaths, has
shut universities and senior high schools, banned gatherings of more than 500,
asked all citizens to avoid non-essential travel and advised those who feel ill
and are aged over 70 to stay at home.
Unlike most
EU countries, however – including its Nordic neighbours Denmark, Norway and
Finland – Sweden has not introduced stricter suppression and social distancing
orders such as mass shop and lower-school closures, nor has it placed citizens
in near-total lockdown, as in Italy, Spain and France.
Sweden’s
chief epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, has denied the country’s approach is to
rapidly build group immunity to the virus, a tactic seemingly pursued in
Britain and the Netherlands until both recently changed tack after warnings
that their health systems could be overwhelmed and death tolls would soar.
But Tegnell
conceded to the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper last week that such an objective
was “not contradictory” with what he described as the government’s core
strategy, which was to ensure “a slow spread of infection, and that the health
services have a reasonable workload”.
On Sunday
night, Tegnell told Swedish TV the outbreak would “calm down” in May but return
in the autumn. “It will be important how much of the population is infected,”
he said. “It will determine what happens in the autumn.” Coronavirus could be
stopped either by “herd immunity, or a combination of immunity and
vaccination”, he said. “It’s basically the same thing.”
Swedish
health professionals are increasingly expressing concern that the government
may be favouring the health of the economy over that of the public. Leading
experts last week were fiercely critical of the Swedish public health authority
in an email thread seen by state broadcaster SVT, accusing it of incompetence
and lack of medical expertise.
“I’m deeply
concerned,” Fredrik Elgh, a virology professor at Umeå University, told SVT.
“I’d rather Stockholm was quarantined. We are almost the only country in the
world not doing everything we can to curb the infection. This is bloody
serious.”
Another
expert in the thread, Joacim Rocklöv, a professor of epidemiology and public
health at Umeå, said: “Does this mean this is a calculated consequence that the
government and public health authority think is okay? How many lives are they
prepared to sacrifice so as not to … risk greater impact on the economy?”
The Journal
of the Swedish Medical Association has published a highly critical paper on the
government’s approach, while the daily Dagens Nyheter has printed multiple
strongly worded op-eds, including one on Saturday by by Stefan Hanson, an
international health PhD, and Claudia Hanson, an epidemiologist.
“We see the
situation in Italy,” the authors wrote, “and we are only a few weeks behind …
We can’t surrender! The UK, which had the same strategy as Sweden, has now
changed completely. It is Stefan Löfven’s duty to do the same in Sweden.’’
Marcus
Carlsson, a mathematician at Lund University, has published YouTube videos
arguing that there is no evidence of a “herd immunity” approach controlling a
virus outbreak anywhere in the world. He described the government’s approach as
“a mad experiment with 10 million people”.
Tegnell and
Löfven were “playing Russian roulette with the Swedish population,” Carlsson
said. “At least if we’re going to do this as a people … lay the facts on the
table so that we understand the reasons. The way I am feeling now is that we
are being herded like a flock of sheep towards disaster.”
Löfven on
Sunday night urged Swedes to lunch at a local restaurant, while Carl Johan
Sonesson, a senior local politician in Skåne county, said on Facebook: while
protecting older and other at-risk people, “consume, eat out, have fun, but
responsibly” and to “think of all the smaller businesses”.
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