Swedish Prime Minister Orders Inquiry of Anti-Lockdown Response to COVID-19

“We have thousands of dead,” he said on Wednesday, adding, “Now is the question of how Sweden should change, not if.” According to Business Insider, Prime Minister Lofven has also launched an investigation into the country’s COVID-19 response strategy.

Chief Swedish epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, was behind the approach. The idea was to protect Sweden’s vulnerable population while herd immunizing Swedes at large. This, Tegnell argued, would better position the country in the event of a second wave.

Instead, Sweden’s approach revealed “shortcomings” that Prime Minister Lofven is eager to better understand. Among the problems with the Tegnell’s initial reasoning is that herd immunity would require some 60 percent of Swedes to develop antibodies to protect against future infections. As of May, that figure is only at 7.3 percent in Stockholm. Other issues resulted from Sweden’s equally relaxed attitude toward testing.

Prime Minister Loften will begin his probe by looking into why roughly half of Sweden’s COVID-19 deaths occurred in nursing homes, disproportionately hurting the vulnerable elderly population that the Swedish government issued its early measures with the intent to protect.