When the pandemic struck in 2020, Sweden should, according to the Corona Commission, have introduced more powerful and interventionist infection control measures, and the government should have taken the lead in all aspects of pandemic management.

Oral protection instructions should have been given as soon as oral protection was available, according to the Commission's final report.

More efforts to try to slow down the general spread of infection would have protected the elderly and risk groups and created more time for overview and analysis, it is also written.

- Sweden periodically had among the highest death rates in Europe in the spring of 2020, but in terms of the entire pandemic, Sweden is one of the countries that has had the lowest excess mortality, says Commission President Mats Melin.

Became addicted to FHM

According to the final report, the government became too dependent on the Public Health Agency's assessments, which are believed to rest on a single person, the agency's head.

According to the Commission, the government has also been too uncritical of FHM and should instead have listened to more experts outside the authority.

- We believe that the 2020 government and former Prime Minister Stefan Löfven bear a responsibility for having largely uncritically accepted the Public Health Agency's assessments well into the pandemic and for not having given directives to the agency to correct the course, says Mats Melin.

The right financial investments

Sweden's choice in the economic crisis management, where there were rapid and powerful investments in monetary policy and fiscal policy, was, according to the Commission, a good strategy.

That speed in that situation preceded accuracy was a real strategy, the final report writes.

Want to see an investigation into crisis management

The Commission's most important conclusions for the future are that Sweden's ability to handle crises and preparedness must be significantly strengthened before the next crisis.

This includes material, organizational legal preparedness.

A body for clear national crisis management should be set up directly under the government, according to the Commission, which also wants to see a parliamentary inquiry into the organization of crisis management.  

It is also pointed out that the Government Offices' documentation of its crisis management must be significantly better and that international co-operation on infection control must be better. 

Hear more in the clip above about the Corona Commission's conclusions