Is it more important to deal with public opinion than to deal with the spread of infection?

This is the opinion of state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell in a weekend interview in Svenska Dagbladet.

For example, he mentions closed borders: "There is a moving consensus among experts in the world that border closures have never worked and will never work".

Nevertheless, closed national borders have become one of the most popular political measures during the corona crisis. Few announcements from a state government can sound more powerful than this: We are closing our boundaries! The Danes added with Danish swing: Expect to meet armed guard forces at the Öresund Bridge. It sounds like Shakespeare or the Bible - and speaks directly to their own voters.

But the compatriots who rush home to be in the right place when the wind bridge is pulled up can be carriers as well as the others that are now closed out. An examination by the New York Times also shows that the infection had spread internationally even before the powerful measures came into place.

As yet, no political movement has come up with a way to make political profit on the huge commitment to covid-19. In the United States, Fox News has abandoned its initial effort to describe the virus scare as an organized attack on President Trump, and has now aligned itself with the media: this is serious, washing hands. In the margins, scattered attempts are made to police the virus.

In Hungary, the government has argued that there is a secure link between illegal immigration and the spread of infection - without providing any evidence for the claim.

Brazil's President Bolsonaro dismisses covid19 as a small prong and the pandemic as a "media trick" to damage his position of power.

But the broad political conclusion is the opposite. Leaders around the world have - after a few weeks of doubt - realized that it would be associated with a high political price to be perceived as smoothing or fading the threat of the pandemic. Power is taken after power.

The big difference between the swine flu world in 2009 and the corona virus 2020 is that social media has become the dominant media form of the globe, pushing out traditional media in the margin. This has, among other things, made power more unstable; Opinions have become both more powerful and more uncontrolled - and more open to manipulation.

Boundary closure is a demonstration of the leadership and manpower that the people are believed to thirst for in times of crisis. One answer to the voters' demand: Do something! Closed borders cannot stop the virus but it can calm the public opinion.

In our day, pandemic management is about the same - or more? - on dealing with public opinion like dealing with the spread of infection.

I believe that theses will be rewritten in the future, when the response to covid-19 will be evaluated.