I start by asking him to give himself a report card – and his answer is classic Tegnell, defending Sweden’s approach resolutely and casting gentle aspersions on others. And also be a bit resistant to quick fixes, to realise that this is not going to be easy, it is not going to be a short-term kind of thing, it’s not going to be fixed by one kind of measure. Sweden’s approach to the pandemic is unusual in large part because its governance is unusual. Unlike in pretty much every other country, it is not politicians who take the big decisions but Sweden’s public health agency, due to its constitution giving big powers to independent authorities. We are not just working with communicable diseases, we are working with public health as a whole,” he says.

Source: The Irish Times September 13, 2020 15:45 UTC