Sweden losing trust in top Covid-19 strategist who rejected lockdowns

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Sweden's king said his country had failed in its handling of Covid-19, in a sharp criticism of a pandemic policy partly blamed for a high death toll among the elderly.

STOCKHOLM (BLOOMBERG) - The chief architect of Sweden's controversial response to the pandemic is losing the confidence of the people who are supposed to be following his advice, with even the nation's monarch signalling his disapproval.

Dr Anders Tegnell, Sweden's state epidemiologist and the country's main proponent of an anti-lockdown strategy, saw his support slump 13 points in a poll published on Thursday (Dec 17), to 59 per cent of those surveyed. Confidence in his employer, the Swedish Public Health Agency, sank to 52 per cent from 68 per cent in October, according to the poll by Ipsos and Dagens Nyheter.

"Confidence is in a downward spiral," said Mr Nicklas Kallebring, an analyst at Ipsos.

The latest poll follows cries for help from Sweden's healthcare workers, who are increasingly overwhelmed by a pandemic that has sickened and killed exponentially more of their countrymen than in any other Nordic country.

The situation has already overwhelmed intensive care units in Stockholm, and the authorities are now racing to come up with contingency plans.

Meanwhile, Dr Tegnell has continued to defend Sweden's overall strategy of avoiding lockdowns. He also argues that there's no real evidence that face masks work, and Swedes are among the only people left going about their daily lives largely mask-free, with shops, restaurants and gyms all still open.

In an interview with broadcaster TV4, Dr Tegnell said no one can tell whether Sweden's strategy has failed.

"More or less all countries are struggling with this," he said. But he acknowledged that the situation in his home country is dire.

"We are beginning to approach breaking point in many different aspects," he said. "I understand that healthcare is having a very tough time now... the staff are worn out" all of which means "that the pressure on care is becoming very, very great".

More broadly, the Ipsos/Dagens Nyheter poll of 1,226 voters showed confidence in the authorities generally has fallen to a new low of 34 per cent.

"If confidence in the authorities disappears, fewer people will listen to the advice and recommendations they give," Ipos's Kallebring said.

"It can have real consequences for life and death."

The King

The Covid-19 death toll in Sweden stands at 7,802, the highest in the Nordic region in both absolute and per capita terms. The situation has caused such widespread shock in the country that it drew a rare verbal intervention from the King.

"The Swedish people have suffered enormously in difficult conditions," King Carl XVI Gustaf told state broadcaster SVT. When it comes to the strategy deployed in Sweden, he said: "I think we have failed."

In his interview with TV4, Dr Tegnell said he was "surprised" by the intensity of the second wave of the pandemic.

"I think many with me are surprised that it has been able to come back so strongly," he said.

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