The lack of corona measures in Sweden had an impact on the pandemic in all of Scandinavia. A new study shows.
Stockholm – The measures that Sweden took at the beginning of the corona pandemic were too few. This is what a scientific study now shows in retrospect. “In the first year of the pandemic, Sweden was a net exporter of the Sars-CoV-2 virus to our Nordic neighboring countries,” said John Pettersson from the University of Uppsala on Tuesday (November 16, 2021) to the Swedish TV broadcaster SVT.
At the beginning of the pandemic, the country, unlike the other Scandinavian countries, had hardly taken any measures to stop the virus from spreading. There was talk of the “Swedish special route”. High case numbers were the result, which ultimately also favored the mutation of the virus.
Corona in Sweden: According to the study, laissez-faire was the wrong strategy
According to the study, Sweden’s cautious corona strategy contributed to the fact that the corona virus could be carried to other countries. This is the result of the researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden, the Norwegian Institute for Public Health and the University of Sydney in Australia. The study was published in the journal Eurosurveillance.
The study was based on 71,000 patient samples, which could be used to create a kind of genetic tree for the spread of the virus in the Nordic countries. It turned out that chains of infection originating in Sweden crossed national borders in several hundred cases.
Corona spread in Sweden: virus in transit country
“Our results suggest that Sweden’s containment strategy has had an impact on the epidemiological situation in the country and in the entire Nordic region,” the study said. One must, however, take into account that Sweden – like Denmark – is a transit country.
“It is not unlikely, but one should be cautious about the interpretation,” John Pettersson told SVT. There were factors in the study that were not controlled and that could also have influenced the result, continued Pettersson.
The Swedish Health Department and the Minister of Social Affairs Lena Hallengren did not want to comment on the study, according to their press service, according to SVT News. (na / dpa)
