Swedish King Carl Gustav describes 2020 as a terrible year. He believes Sweden has failed to save lives during the corona pandemic.
I think we have failed. We have a large number who have lost their lives, and that is horrible. It is something that we all suffer from, he says in the program The year with the royal family on SVT .
More than 7,802 people have died in the pandemic in Sweden, and many have not had the opportunity to say goodbye to their relatives. This the king thinks is deeply regrettable.
– The Swedish people have suffered enormously under difficult conditions. One thinks of all family members who have not been able to say goodbye to their dead family members. I think it is a heavy and traumatic experience not to be able to say a warm goodbye.
When asked if the king himself is afraid of being infected by covid-19, he answers:
– Lately it has felt noticeable, it has crept closer and closer. That’s not what you want.
Johan T Lindwall, editor-in-chief of Svensk damtidning, is critical of the king’s statement:
– He should not criticize in his role as head of state, he says in SVT’s “Morning Studio”.
Does not take self-criticism
State epidemiologist in Sweden, Anders Tegnell, does not take self-criticism after the Public Health Authority on Tuesday had to review that so many elderly people have died of covid-19.
The Swedish Corona Commission was appointed to evaluate Sweden’s efforts during the pandemic. On Tuesday came the first interim report, which dealt with elderly care .
There is a long list of criticisms. The Commission points to structural shortcomings which meant that care for the elderly was not prepared when the pandemic came.
The nursing homes were largely left to themselves, the commission believes.
– We also believe that several measures and decisions that were made this spring to meet the pandemic, came too late and were insufficient, says head of the Corona Commission, Mats Melin.
Of the more than 7,000 Swedes who have so far died of corona, 90 percent are over 70 years old.
Think they were clear from the start
But state epidemiologist Tegnell believes they could not have done so much differently:
– We were very clear from the start that the elderly were very vulnerable, and that all actors had to work very hard to improve the situation so that the elderly would not be exposed to the spread of infection, says Tegnell to Swedish Radio .
He points out that this is the first interim report and that the decision is not ready.
– We will see in later reports what everyone could have done for something more, he says.
The elderly were hit hard this spring, but even now the death toll in nursing homes is high. Why have we not become better at protecting our elderly? asks SR’s reporter.
– I think we have gotten better. But it is very difficult to protect the elderly. There are no countries that can do it. Now we see that even Germany, which was good at protecting the elderly this spring, has been hit hard during this period. It is obviously very, very difficult to protect them completely.
– What kind of self-criticism do you take? What more could you have done?
– We could probably have been even clearer in giving advice to those who take care of elderly care, about how important it was to do things. But it was not we who were to do anything, it is the companies themselves. We were very early in saying that the elderly were particularly vulnerable. We knew that from both China and Italy, Tegnell answers.
High death rates in Sweden
Tegnell is the leader of the Public Health Agency’s work during the corona crisis. He has also been criticized in the past.
This spring, Tegnell believed that Sweden would achieve herd immunity in a short time . Other researchers believed that with this strategy he exposed the Swedes to a dangerous experiment.
The criticism has also come from international sources , because the Swedes have had less intrusive infection control measures than most other countries.
Sweden is one of the countries with the most corona deaths in relation to the population. So far, 7667 Swedes have died with the virus.
In comparison, Norway has around 400. Sweden thus has over ten times as many deaths as Norway.
In recent weeks, Sweden has introduced stricter measures . Among other things, only eight people are allowed to gather at a time. The tightening came after a sharp increase in infection. A few days ago, the health director in Stockholm asked for help because the intensive care units are full .
