Sweden’s ex-main epidemiologist: Country's strategy against virus - wrong
by BNN
Sweden’s former chief epidemiologist Annika Linde has become a rare voice in Sweden to doubt the country’s chosen strategy against COVID-19, which was one of the softest in Europe and focused on protecting people in risk groups, The Guardian reports.
Annika Linde, who headed Sweden’s response to swine flu and SARS as state chief epidemiologist from 2005 to 2013, had previously expressed support for her country’s approach under her successor, Anders Tegnell.
However, now, she has now become the first member of the public health establishment to break ranks, saying she has changed her mind as a result of Sweden’s relatively high death toll compared with that of its neighbours, Denmark, Norway, and Finland.
«I think that we needed more time for preparedness.
If we had shut down very early … we would have been able, during that time, to make sure that we had what was necessary to protect the vulnerable,» Linde told the Observer as quoted by The Guardian.
For two days in the middle week of May, Sweden had the highest per capita death rate in the world on a seven-day rolling average, and the overall death toll is expected to exceed 4,000 this week.