STOCKHOLM --
The person who turned the face of Sweden's no-lockdown pandemic coverage, Anders Tegnell, is stepping down as chief epidemiologist to take up a job on the World Well being Group (WHO), the Swedish Well being Company stated on Wednesday.
Tegnell, whose virtually every day information conferences had Swedes glued to their screens for a lot of the pandemic, will turn into a senior professional at a WHO group tasked with co-ordinating the COVID-19 vaccine response between well being and vaccine organizations.
Tegnell proved a polarizing determine on the Well being Company. He was compelled to have police safety after he and his household obtained demise threats however his face has additionally featured on T-shirts with the slogan "In Tegnell we belief." Some individuals even obtained Tegnell tatoos.
Greater than 17,000 individuals have died in Sweden from or with COVID-19, many instances extra per capita than in neighbouring Nordic international locations but additionally lower than in lots of different European international locations that additionally opted for lockdowns.
When a lot of the world scrambled to lock down because the coronavirus unfold like wildfire in winter and spring 2020, Sweden stood out by choosing delicate and voluntary measures. It stored faculties open whereas most eating places, bars and different companies by no means shut. Masks had been by no means advisable.
Tegnell, 65, argued that lockdowns weren't sustainable and that voluntary measures might obtain the identical outcomes with out damaging the belief between authorities and the general public.
Nonetheless, as deaths quickly exceeded these in different Scandinavian international locations, his critics argued that the shortage of extra intrusive measures truly eroded public belief, whereas additionally growing ranges of human struggling.
A fee, appointed by the federal government after stress from the opposition, concluded this month that not sufficient had been carried out to halt the unfold of the virus within the early levels of the pandemic however private liberties had been revered and that the voluntary technique had been broadly proper.
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