A large group of researchers criticize the Swedish Board of Health in an open letter to the government.
The scientific foundation that the Public Health Authority has is weak and even embarrassing, says Sten Linnarsson, professor of molecular systems biology at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, to Dagens Nyheter.
Together with hundreds of other Swedish and foreign researchers, he has signed a letter criticizing the Swedish response to the National Board of Health, the Public Health Authority. That ‘s what Dagens Nyheter writes.
In just one day, the Swedish authorities have found 18 coronary-related deaths in the Stockholm region, where the coronavirus has spread the most.
At the same time, Swedish children are still attending school, and meetings of up to 500 people are still legal. However, the authorities have also urged residents of Stockholm who can work from home to do so.
Anders Tegnell, who is a state epidemiologist in the Public Health Authority, has taken the lead because the Swedish government has a very close cooperation with the authorities..
He has said on several occasions that the authorities take the situation very seriously, pointing out time and again that it is useless to respond quickly to the coronavirus.
But that approach is not accepted by a large group of scientists.
A ‘cynical’ approach
In the open letter, according to Dagens Nyheter, the researchers urge the Swedish government to limit contact between people in society and to test significantly more than they do today.
We are one of the countries in the world that has introduced the weakest measures. Actually, we just want to encourage the government and the authorities to follow the international recommendations of the WHO, which most countries follow, says Sten Linnarson.
