Sweden’s top infectious disease expert said the country will ease coronavirus safety restrictions on the elderly and encouraged them to no longer “completely isolate.”
“Basically, we mean that we will send a message to elderly people: You don’t need to completely isolate any more. We send the same message to them that we send to the population in general: Avoid big gatherings. Keep your distance,” Anders Tegnell told BBC Radio 4.
He added that people over the age of 70 should “live a bit more of a normal life.”
Anders Tegnell, Sweden’s State Epidemiologist, says his country will continue avoiding lockdown & he’s in favour of relaxing more, telling elderly people “you don’t need to completely isolate anymore…just avoid big gatherings, keep a distance” #R4Todayhttps://t.co/LDVEk0ZOtx
— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) October 20, 2020
The death rate is higher in Sweden than in neighboring countries, but daily deaths are lower, averaging at about three fatalities.
“Unfortunately, our death rates, everybody would wish that they didn’t happen, and I would also like to say that this is nothing we really anticipated,” he said. “This is not any kind of risk we took willingly or knowingly. I know critics have said that we sort of sacrificed the elderly in Sweden, but that is absolutely not true.”
The Nordic country has largely bucked the trend of locking down, opting against strict lockdowns and making minimal restrictions to large gatherings. The country also has not imposed a mask mandate, a tactic that Tegnell asserted lacks hard evidence of working.
In April, Tegnell warned the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control against issuing advice that masks should be worn in public to slow the spread of COVID-19.
“We would like to warn against the publication of this advice,” Tegnell said, adding that how much asymptomatic people contribute to community spread was a “question that remains unanswered.”
He added that the advice “would also imply that the spread is airborne, which would seriously harm further communication and trust among the population and healthcare workers.”
“We have looked very carefully. The evidence is weak,” Tegnell said of wearing masks. “Countries that have masks are not doing the best right now. It is very dangerous to try to believe that masks are a silver bullet.”
Sweden’s approach has found some admirers abroad, including Republican Sen. Rand Paul, who has praised the country’s approach on social media.
“The US now slightly exceeds Sweden in per capita deaths from COVID. The difference — govt dictates destroyed the US economy with lockdown. Sweden did not suffer the economic depression from lockdown. Will nanny staters learn from their terrible mistake?” Paul wrote on Twitter in September.
The US now slightly exceeds Sweden in per capita deaths from COVID. The difference — govt dictates destroyed the US economy with lockdown. Sweden did not suffer the economic depression from lockdown. Will nanny staters learn from their terrible mistake? https://t.co/qaLw6s7Mtc
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) September 8, 2020
Paul also sparred with the top infectious disease expert in the United States, Dr. Anthony Fauci, over the country’s more heavy-handed approach when compared to Sweden.
“If you look at the data, the countries that did very little have a lower death rate than the U.S.,” Paul, who is also a doctor, said. “It’s important that we the people not simply acquiesce to authoritarian mandates on our behavior without first making the nanny state prove their hypothesis.”
Fauci cautioned against comparing the two countries.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate to compare Sweden with us,” Fauci said.
