'They are leading us to catastrophe': Sweden's coronavirus stoicism begins to jar
There’s a surreal calm in the last country in Europe
to hold out against lockdown. But the death toll is rising and some are voicing
dissent
Derek
Robertson in Malmö
Mon 30 Mar
2020 18.38 BSTLast modified on Tue 31 Mar 2020 02.06 BST
The Øresund
Bridge – yes, that bridge – is an engineering marvel linking the Swedish city
of Malmö and Copenhagen that normally transports 70,000 people daily. It has
fallen eerily silent. Denmark is under coronavirus lockdown, and the Danes have
imposed strict border controls. On the Swedish side, the Øresund remains open,
although, understandably not many are making that journey.
It feels
surreal in Sweden just now. Working from my local cafe, I terror-scroll through
Twitter seeing clips of deserted cities, or army trucks transporting the dead
in Italy, surrounded by the usual groups of chatty teenagers, mothers with
babies and the occasional freelancer.
Outdoors,
couples stroll arm in arm in the spring sunshine; Malmö’s cafe terraces do a
brisk trade. On the beach and surrounding parkland at Sibbarp there were
picnics and barbecues this weekend; the adjoining skate park and playground
were rammed. No one was wearing a mask.
The global
pandemic has closed down Europe’s economies and confined millions of people
across the continent to their homes. But here, schools, gyms, and (fully
stocked) shops remain open, as do the borders. Bars and restaurants continue to
serve, and trains and buses are still shuttling people all over the country.
You can even, if you wish, go to the cinema (it smainly indie fare: The Peanut
Butter Falcon and Mr Jones were on at my local arthouse over the weekend).
The
precautions that Swedes have been advised to adopt – no gatherings of more than
50 people (revised down from 500 last Friday), avoid social contact if over 70
or ill, try to work from home, table service only in bars and restaurants –
seem to have allayed public fears that the shocking images from hospitals in
Italy and Spain could be repeated here.
The prime
minister, Stefan Löfven, has urged Swedes to behave “as adults” and not to
spread “panic or rumours”.
Panic,
though, is exactly what many within Sweden’s scientific and medical community
are starting to feel. A petition signed by more than 2,000 doctors, scientists,
and professors last week – including the chairman of the Nobel Foundation, Prof
Carl-Henrik Heldin – called on the government to introduce more stringent
containment measures. “We’re not testing enough, we’re not tracking, we’re not
isolating enough – we have let the virus loose,” said Prof Cecilia
Söderberg-Nauclér, a virus immunology researcher at the Karolinska Institute.
“They are leading us to catastrophe.”
Strong
words, but stoicism is a way of life here, as is unflappability. A 300-year
history of efficient and transparent public administration, and high levels of
trust in experts and governing officials, have left the public inclined to
believe what they are told, and that those doing the telling have their best
interests at heart.
“I trust
that the doctors working with the government know what they are doing, so I
suppose we’re as well prepared as we can be,” Robert Andersson, 50, a vendor
manager in IT who lives in Södermalm, Stockholm, said. “This ‘hysteria’ that
the media is launching is far more dangerous than the virus itself.”
Simon
Strand, 30, a business consultant in Östermalm, Stockholm, agrees. “There is no
reason to believe the authorities are not paying attention,” he said.
Anders
Tegnell, Sweden’s chief epidemiologist, who is leading the government’s
handling of the crisis, advocates a strategy of mitigation: allow the virus to
spread slowly without overwhelming the health system, and without recourse to
draconian restrictions. Just don’t call it “herd immunity”, a phrase that
Tegnell, and the authorities, have steadfastly refused to use.
It says
much for the transparency and accountability that Swedes expect from public
figures that Tegnell remains so accessible to the media. With criticism of
Sweden’s response to Covid-19 mounting, he has the slightly exasperated tone of
a man tired of repeating the obvious when asked what he thinks of the growing
concern and calls for a city-wide quarantine of Stockholm, given the very
recent spike in cases there. On Monday, Sweden said it had recorded 3,700 cases
and 110 deaths.
“Yes, there
has been an increase but it’s not traumatic so far. Of course, we’re going into
a phase in the epidemic where we’ll see a lot more cases in the next few weeks,
more people in the ICU, but that’s just like any other country – nowhere has
been able to slow down the spread considerably.”
Sweden’s
nearest EU neighbours – the Danes, Finns, and Norwegians – have accepted a
lockdown strategy, closing schools, workplaces, and borders weeks ago. “The
problem with that approach is you tire the system out,” Tegnell said. “You
can’t keep a lockdown going for months – it’s impossible.”
But such a
situation may become inevitable. “The government thinks they can’t stop it, so
they’ve decided to let people die,” Söderberg-Nauclér said. “They don’t want to
listen to the scientific data that’s presented to them. They trust the Public
Health Agency [Folkhälsomyndigheten] blindly, but the data they have is weak –
embarrassing even.
“We are
seeing signs of a higher doubling rate than Italy, Stockholm will soon have an
acute ICU shortage, and they don’t understand that by then it will be too late
to act. All of this is very dangerous.”
Tegnell
gives such criticism short shrift: “There is no evidence whatsoever that doing
more at this stage would make any difference. It’s far better to introduce
stringent measures at very specific intervals, and keep them running for as
little time as possible.”
While there
is a constant reappraisal of the situation, Tegnell says Sweden has the crisis
under control. “We believe we have the most important measures in place
already. Of course, we might have to do more things, but we’re not there yet.”
For now,
Swedes seem to believe him, going about their daily routines wondering if – not
when – that point might be reached. Tegnell and the government have set their
course, and while it is hard to doubt their sincerity, it is difficult to
reconcile Sweden’s response with efforts across the rest of Europe. Perhaps
other Swedes privately feel the same, but so far are unwilling to give voice to
such concerns.
Orla Vigsö,
a professor of crisis communications at Gothenburg University, sums up the
dilemma. “People are starting to ask: are others stupid and paranoid? Or
is Sweden doing it wrong?”
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