Swedish epidemiologist and his family receive death threats for relaxed pandemic response
Sweden’s state epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, received death threats over his handling of the pandemic, it was reported on Tuesday.
Swedish police are investigating threats made against Mr Tegnell and his family, the daily Aftonbladet newspaper reported.
He is considered by many to be the man behind the relatively relaxed measures the country has introduced to stem the spread of coronavirus.
On Monday, Mr Tegnell denied a claim that Stockholm was on course to achieve herd immunity, when a high enough percentage of the population develops resistance to the virus to stop it from spreading, by the end of the month.
“No, that will not happen,” he told US broadcaster NPR.
Mr Tegnell said he thought the immunity rate in the Swedish capital was still below 30 per cent.
“There is a problem with measuring immunity for this virus,” he said.
Last week, a report by Sweden’s public health agency containing the initial findings of an antibody study showed only 7.3 per cent of people in Stockholm had developed antibodies to Covid-19.
Swedish authorities defended the country’s response to the pandemic, rejecting “a week-by-week measurement of mortality” that shows Sweden has one of the highest death rates in the world.
Between May 12 and 19, Sweden reported 6.25 Covid-19 deaths per day for every million people across a seven-day rolling average, according to data published on ourworldindata.org.
That was the highest rate in Europe, with Britain recording an average of 5.75 deaths a day per million people.
Swedish Foreign Minister
Ann Linde said “transmission is slowing down, the treatment of Covid-19 patients in intensive care is decreasing significantly and the rising death toll curve has been flattened”.
“This is not a sprint, it’s a marathon,” Ms Linde said.
Sweden’s relatively soft approach to fighting the outbreak attracted international attention.
Large gatherings were banned in the country but restaurants and schools for younger children stayed open.
The government urged social distancing and Swedes have largely complied.
But the country has paid a heavy price, reporting more than 4,000 deaths among its Covid-19 patients.
That is about 40 deaths for every 100,000 people in the country, compared with about 10 in neighbouring Denmark and about four in Norway, both of which imposed stricter lockdowns early on.
Coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms in most people. But for some, especially older adults and people with underlying health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death.