Sweden stands out in the corona pandemic against its neighbors Norway, Denmark and Finland.
The death toll in Sweden is significantly higher and during the last 30 days, almost 1,000 people have died in covid-19.
While in neighboring countries the figures are very low.
Anders Tegnell, state epidemiologist at the Swedish Public Health Agency, was asked on Thursday evening in Aktuellt about the difference.
- We must remember that the unusual here are Norway and Finland from a European perspective.
In Sweden, it looks very much like in many other European countries.
But why we have that difference, yes we do not really know.
Of course, there are obvious differences, such as the fact that some countries are more sparsely populated than others, he says.
What responsibility does the Public Health Agency have in this?
- We all have a responsibility.
We all do our best to ensure that this has as small an effect as possible in society, just as people all over the world struggle with different conditions to cope with it.
"Will spend many years"
Tegnell was also asked what measures the Swedish Public Health Agency and the government could have taken to be closer to the death rates of our neighboring countries.
- It is very difficult to know.
There is a lot of discussion about which measures have had effects.
You can compare with countries in Europe where you have closed down very much but still ended up with very high numbers and where you have taken much stricter measures than in Norway and Finland.
It is probably the case that everyone who had a serious spread during the spring also had it this autumn.
- I think we will spend many years to see what the right measures were.
At the same time, we must remember that many of these measures have been very costly for public health, says Anders Tegnell.