– You have to take the criticism seriously, but I think it was exaggerated.
That’s what Anders Tegnell says in a larger interview with Swedish daily newspaperabout the criticism that hurled at him during the covid-19 pandemic.
Avisa has obtained figures from the statistics authority SCB, which show that Sweden, from 2020 to 2022, had a 4.4 per cent excess mortality.
The figure is among the lowest in Europe.
– What you have to remember is that many people actually died during the pandemic. It is of course terrible in many ways – not least for relatives and others affected. So you have to be a little humble about such numbers, says the former state epidemiologist.
At the same time, he notes that Sweden has done well – partly, he believes, because they succeeded in reaching out to and vaccinating risk groups early.
– Character assassination
– Tough period
Dagbladet met Tegnell last September, together with former health minister Bent Høie, in connection with a conference on crisis communication during the corona pandemic in Oslo.
He then described the pandemic as a “tough period”.
He also doubted that we will ever get a clear answer as to who chose the “correct” approach to handling the pandemic.
– It is not easy to compare two countries in that way, all the time such questions depend so much on the context, such as the degree of overcrowding and people’s socio-economic situation, Tegnell told Dagbladet.
– What would you have done differently in handling the pandemic?
– We were faced with two significant issues in particular. One of them was nursing homes, an area where we clearly have a lot to learn from Norway, namely how to build up good medical expertise in nursing homes. It seems to be missing – not everywhere in Sweden, but in many places. This was also an important reason why we had such high death tolls at the beginning of the pandemic, Tegnell replied.
– The second problem, which we have to work on further, is about how we reach people who have recently arrived in Sweden. This group clearly took a large part of the burden during the pandemic.
– Got tired of waiting
In March last year, it was announced that Anders Tegnell was to resign as state epidemiologist.
The Norwegian Public Health Authority (FHM) then announced that he was to start a top job at the World Health Organization (WHO). About a month later, it became known that he did not get the job after all
It had turned out, according to FHM, that it was not possible to reach an agreement.
– If you have had anything to do with the WHO, you are not surprised. It is a rather complicated organization. This was not a job that actually existed, but I was going there as a seconded expert, and the appointment process ran out of time. So in the end we all got tired of waiting, says Tegnell to SvD.
He therefore remained at FHM, where he now works with coordination of international projects and vaccine issues.
He turns 67 in April, but states in the interview that he has no plans to retire anytime soon.
