Sweden at odds with neighbours in opposing use of face masks
Nation goes it alone again, saying that social distancing and self-isolation of sick is ‘much more important’
WITH face masks mandatory on public transport in Denmark from this morning, Sweden is once again alone in its position on the pandemic.
The country, which chose not to close lower secondary schools, pubs, restaurants and sports facilities at the peak in April, is on its own in not recommending face masks.
Dr Anders Tegnell, the nation’s state epidemiologist, told The Daily Telegraph that he did not expect the Public Health Agency of Sweden to follow Norway, Finland and Denmark and drop its opposition to masks when it recommends new measures to the government at the start of next month.
“The main risk is that people will think ‘OK, I’m wearing a face mask. I don’t need to take these other precautions’,” he said, claiming that social distancing and self-isolation of the sick were “much more important”.
“There is now a continuous and even increased spread in a number of countries who implemented face masks,” he said. “There is a belief that if you just have face masks, you can forget about everything else, you can run your subway with full trains and so on.”
Norway last week recommended the use of face masks on public transport in Oslo, and Finland on public transport nationwide. Last Sunday, Covid-19 Sweden, a group of 45 Swedish researchers critical of their nation’s strategy, told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper that masks should be worn even by students and teachers in schools.
“The scientific data is clear at this point, with most studies showing that face masks do limit the spread, and to my knowledge not a single study showing they increase the spread, so why are they so stubborn?” said Lena Einhorn, an author with a PHD in virology, who is part of the group. “Either they are still striving for herd immunity, or are incapable of admitting a mistake.”
But Jonas Ludvigsson, professor of clinical epidemiology at Stockholm’s Karolinska Institute, who on Monday attacked the group for cherry-picking and misrepresenting studies, said that Sweden’s different approach was best explained by the unusual independence of its government agencies: “In the other Nordic countries, politicians often have a stronger role than the experts at public health agencies.”
Frode Forland, Dr Tegnell’s Norwegian counterpart, told The Telegraph he believed Dr Tegnell had “a valid argument” against face masks.
“We’ve been stressing that it’s still much more effective to keep distance than to wear a face mask,” he said. “If you keep one metre’s distance, the reduction of risk of infection is about 80 per cent, but if you wear a face mask it’s about 40 per cent.”
He estimated that, even with the rising number of cases Norway is currently experiencing, about 70,000 people would have to wear a mask for a week to prevent a single infection.
On Wednesday, Johan Carlson, the director general of Sweden’s public health agency and Dr Tegnell’s boss, appeared to soften the agency’s stance, saying that “the issue over face masks is not at all dead”, and that it was working on a review of the available evidence.
But Dr Tegnell said the agency was unlikely to recommend face masks unless the rate of infection increases dramatically: “There might be a role for face masks if you have increased incidence in a limited geographical area.” But that Sweden was seeing a downward trend in most regions, he said.