The proposal from the Free Moderate Student Union came in a debate article in Svenska Dagbladet on Tuesday.

Chairman John Norell believes that students have suffered enough during the pandemic and that freedom of assembly should take precedence.

On Tuesday, he debated the issue with Torsten Mossberg, chairman of both Senior Physicians and the Swedish Medical Association's Ethics and Responsibility Council, in SVT's Aktuellt.

- It's about valuing different things.

I have a responsibility to my members, to give them the opportunity to exercise their democratic and constitutionally protected right to gather, Norell emphasized.

- Public health is important, but it must also be weighed against the effects on the economy and against human rights and freedoms.

"It's crazy"

That attitude is unsympathetic, says Torsten Mossberg.

- I think it's crazy.

It is an incredibly lack of solidarity with society's weak, and elderly like me, who can get into trouble even in the middle of the micron.

He agrees that freedoms and rights are important.

- But we have a pandemic and a socially dangerous disease.

It is not time to just show solidarity with one's own association.

It is a joint work in society, says Mossberg.

"Unreasonable with annual shutdowns"

Recently, the number of corona cases has been record high.

At the same time, the number of hospitalized people with the disease has been relatively small compared with previous waves of infection.

Other diseases, such as winter vomiting and influenza, have been more burdensome for healthcare.

- We must ask ourselves the question of whether it is reasonable to have annual shutdowns every winter or whether we need to think about how we should handle it in the future.

It is bizarre that after two years we do not have enough healthcare places, but that does not legitimize restricting democratic freedoms and rights, says John Norell.

Thomas Mossberg agrees that the long-term solutions must be discussed, but that it is reasonable with restrictions in the current situation.

- Right now we can not go out and say that we can spread the infection, he says.