Sweden’s top epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, has acquired the kind of devil-may-care reputation that doesn’t often attach to a public health official. His refusal to issue the mandatory lockdown orders that proliferated around the world in response to the coronavirus pandemic has drawn international suspicion. It has also won him admiration from some Americans, particularly those who chafe at the strict orders issued by various state governors and fear the calamitous economic consequences of widespread social distancing.

According to some officials, Sweden hasn’t issued a raft of new rules to restrict movement, backed by threat of punishment, because if the government gives advice, the citizenry tends to accept it. “We recommend social distancing,” Ambassador Karin Olofsdotter, the Swedish envoy to the United States, told the Washington Examiner. “It is a recommendation, but most people follow these recommendations. So that’s why it has been decided that we don’t need to go into a formal lockdown.”