Thread by @Telegraph

Sweden’s former state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell charted a lonely and hugely controversial course through the Covid-19 pandemic.

@AllisonPearson speaks to him about the “Swedish Experiment”

Read their conversation here ⬇️

🔬 In March 2020, as every country in the Western world imposed a lockdown on its population, Sweden’s state epidemiologist stuck to the plan.

Apart from a ban on gatherings of over 50 people and a few rules for restaurants, Covid measures were voluntary

With every other European country closing its schools, why was keeping them open so important to him?

🗣 ‘If children are not able to go to school, mental health will deteriorate' Anders Tegnell told @AlllisonPearson on the #PlanetNormal podcast.

playpodca.st/planetnormal 🎧

“In all the discussions we had, mental health of children was very high because we know that, if they are not able to go to school, mental health will deteriorate"

🗣 "There’s lots of studies and evidence around that"

telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/2…

📞 Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak had held a secret Zoom meeting with Tegnell and Professors Gupta and Heneghan in September 2020 to hear their take on a potential “circuit-breaker lockdown”.

His impression was that Boris and Rishi were “quite open” to hearing it was a bad idea

On this week's #PlanetNormal, Anders Tegnell explained to @AllisonPearson and @LiamHalligan his wariness of "circuit breakers" and why Sweden took a different approach to lockdowns

You can listen to the episode in full here ⬇️
playpodca.st/planetnormal

“I don’t really like to be called vindicated"

“This is not a competition. This is about public health. It’s about trying to do your best to keep your population as healthy as they possibly can be during a health crisis.”

Read the conversation in full ⤵️
telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/2…