The Swedish strategy to fight the coronavirus pandemic was slow and insufficient to limit the spread of infections in the country and was below the expected standard, said on Friday (29) an independent commission appointed by the government to review the national response to the health crisis .
Considered a European exception in the measures implemented to control the spread of the virus, the Nordic country has not established national lockdown policies or the mandatory use of masks in closed or open environments. This stance is one of the sensitive points addressed in the two-volume report made available by the commission.
“The Swedish choice emphasized control measures based on voluntarism and individual responsibility, rather than intervention measures,” says one excerpt. “Control has been decentralized and fragmented in a way that makes it unclear who is responsible for the whole when an infectious disease affects the country.”
The country was even cited as an example by Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, in May last year, as a model to be followed for not imposing harsh isolation against the coronavirus and keeping a good part of trade open.
With about 10.3 million inhabitants, Sweden has 1.17 million cases of Covid-19. With the figure, it leads among the Nordic nations in number of cases per million inhabitants – they are 115,109. Following are Denmark (65.9 thousand), Iceland (38.7 thousand), Norway (37 thousand) and Finland (28 thousand).
The daily average of confirmed cases per million inhabitants had a one-off high in September, but has been steadily declining since then. The rate, which reached the highest point in January, with 732, is currently at 72. In Brazil, for example, the daily average is 57 new cases per million inhabitants.
The number of infections has decreased due to the immunization campaign, which started in the country in December 2020. Sweden has 67.8% of the population with a complete vaccination schedule (two doses or a single dose of the vaccine), according to data from the platform Our World in Data. The increase in the number of deaths in recent weeks – there are 15 thousand since the beginning of the pandemic –, however, worries the government.
On Wednesday (27), the country announced that the third dose of the vaccine, or booster dose, currently available to those who live in nursing homes and people over 80, will begin to be made available to those over 65 and professionals of health. By the end of May next year, the goal is to offer it to all people over 16, according to Health Minister Lena Hallengren.
In the report released on Friday, the independent committee says that, in the short term, the Swedish health service was able to make changes and treat patients with Covid, but that “a large part of this is to the team’s credit”. “The changes came at the cost of an extreme burden for employees. We will live with the consequences of the pandemic for a long time,” the document states.
With each update of national measures to fight the disease, there is less recommendation for isolation and the use of masks, decisions whose importance is unanimous among international bodies.
In December 2020, there was a recommendation for the use of facial protection in public transport. On September 29 of this year, when phase 4 of the plan to remove the restrictions was implemented, there was no mention of the use of masks. In the latest update, the Swedish government removed the limit on the number of participants in meetings and public events in the case of fully vaccinated children and adults.
It also eliminated the recommendation for remote work to those who could comply with the suggestion. There are no more people limit rules in restaurants, events and shows.
Recommendations for preventing the spread of the disease are to get the vaccine and stay home if you have Covid symptoms. In the case of unvaccinated adults, there is a recommendation that they keep their distance from co-workers and seniors over 70 years of age.
“The commission considers that the way Sweden chose to organize its infection control has given rise to a series of problems in the fight against the pandemic”, summarizes the document. The commission was established in June 2020 by Social Democratic Prime Minister Stefan Löfven after pressure from the main opposition parties, the Moderates and the ultra-right Swedish Democrats.
In December, King Charles 16 Gustav publicly said the country had failed to fight the pandemic — at the time, there was a spike in the number of elderly deaths, something the commission also attributed to national policy failures.
“I believe we failed,” said the monarch on a television program. “We had a huge number of deaths and that’s terrible.”
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