Why does Sweden not recommend the use of a mask for Covid?

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Sweden has already caught everyone's attention in the first wave of Covid, when it became one of the few countries in the world that did not resort to confinement to stop the onslaught of the pandemic.

Months later and fully immersed in the second wave, the Nordic country once again leaves headlines, several, that leave its European neighbors speechless.

The general astonishment is

by the

correspondent

in

in an article entitled

.

"For a foreign visitor arriving in Sweden, the contrast must be staggering," writes

, "on the one hand, doctors do not hide their concern about the rapid increase in infections and, since the beginning of November, of hospitalizations. On the other hand, Swedes continue to go out with their faces uncovered. Whether in the Stockholm subway, in shopping centers or even visiting an elderly person in a residence, the vast majority of the 10 million inhabitants the country do not wear a mask. Neither pharmacists nor maintenance technicians in supermarkets, nor taxi drivers, nor hairdressers nor teachers ... "

Nor is Prime Minister

wearing a mask, except when his duties take him to

and he has to adapt to local regulations.

The correspondent for

that resisting the mask has little or nothing to do with a challenge: "If the Public Health Agency recommended using them tomorrow, I think almost everyone would do it," says a young mother.

But no, the general director of the organization,

, insists over and over again that the mask is not the solution.

"In Spain, France and other countries, the cases have continued to increase significantly despite the mandatory use of a mask," Carlson said at the end of August, "it is difficult to understand what is happening. Is the mask being misused? ? Probably. Does the mask influence the relaxation of social distance? It is also possible, "according to

.

Moreover, for the Swedish Agency, it is not that the mask does not serve as a barrier to the transmission of the

, it is in fact that it encourages it.

Does the data confirm that it is the rest of the world that is wrong?

The data pierce the policy of individual responsibility: "A situation black as night"

The number of patients in intensive care units has doubled in the last ten days in the Nordic country: 129 patients are in the ICU for a population of just over 10 million people;

one in four ICU beds is

;

it is the Nordic country hardest hit by the pandemic.

And the Swedish relaxation has suffered its first failure on Wednesday: the sale of alcohol is prohibited after 10 pm.

First express restriction, end of the

.

"We are facing a situation that can turn black as night," Prime Minister Löfven warned at a press conference in Stockholm reported by Europa Press.

"We risk ending up as in spring," he said, and also assured that he is prepared to consider the possibility of imposing new measures to limit public meetings if the current ones do not take effect.

13 of the 21 Swedish regions already recommend that their citizens avoid all physical contact with those with whom they do not live.

They recommend, they do not oblige.

Capacity regulations do apply in restaurants and nightlife from November 1.

But the mask, for now, is still not contemplated.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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