Sweden is one of the countries with the least corona infection. They also have few people admitted to intensive care units, and few are dying of corona at the moment.
At the same time, Norway and Denmark have had to introduce measures after opening up society this autumn, while infection rates have skyrocketed.
Significantly more dangerous for the elderly
Immunitetsteori
To Aftonbladet says Niklas Arnberg, who works as a professor of virology at the University of Umeå, that it may be related to the fact that Sweden was hard hit at the start of the pandemic, where they had few measures and let the virus spread among the population.
– It is difficult to have a clear answer as to what the difference is, but it is possible we have gained a type of population immunity since then, Arnberg says to Aftonbladet.
In November last year, state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell went out and inadmitted that they were wrong in its strategy. Norway, for its part, chose several intervention measures, and has had far less infection in society.
In Sweden, just over 15,000 people have died from corona, while in Norway the number is just over 1,000.
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Norwegian support
Frode Forland, director of the National Institute of Public Health (NIPH), believes that the Swedish virologist has a point.
– There are far more who have undergone corona infection in Sweden through the first phases of the pandemic. Together with good vaccination coverage, this provides good protection against infection and serious illness of Delta, Forland explains to Dagbladet.
The head of the FHI says that in Norway and the other Nordic countries, the Delta infection this autumn has largely been driven by infection among unvaccinated children and young people, who have then passed it on to older siblings, parents and grandparents.
– Sweden has probably received a smaller wave of Delta among unvaccinated children and young people because a larger proportion have undergone corona infection, and received protection, in the first phases of the pandemic, Forland explains.
Defy WHO – must test fewer
– Pure hypothesis
Professor Steinar Westin tells Dagbladet that he thinks it is too early to conclude that the Swedes are now bearing fruit from the strategy of releasing the original virus on the population at the beginning of the pandemic.
– For the time being, this must be a pure hypothesis, I do not think we will make any point out of this until we know more, he says to Dagbladet.
Accuses Sweden: – Scary
Westin believes Sweden has paid a high price for the strategy they had, in the form of high infection rates and death rates.
He also points out that the omikron variant, which has also been registered in Sweden, but has not spread to the same extent as in Norway, creates uncertainty.
Arnberg also admits that the new variant worries him.
– I’m a little worried about omikron. We must expect that there may be an increase in infection, we have already seen signs of that, he says.
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