Anders Tegnell

Nils Anders Tegnell (born 17 April 1956)[1] is a Swedish physician specialising in Infectious disease and civil servant, and the current state epidemiologist of Sweden.[2] He was employed by the Swedish Institute for Communicable Disease between 2004 and 2005, and the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare between 2005 and 2012. He returned to the Institute for Communicable Disease in 2012 as a head of department. He has served as state epidemiologist since 2013, first at the Institute, and later at the Public Health Agency of Sweden after a merger of the Institute for Communicable Diseases and the Swedish National Institute of Public Health.

Anders Tegnell
State Epidemiologist of the Public Health Agency of Sweden
Assumed office
2013
DeputyAnders Wallensten
Preceded byAnnika Linde
Personal details
Born
Nils Anders Tegnell

(1956-04-17) 17 April 1956
Uppsala, Sweden
Nationality Swedish
Alma materLund University
Linköping University
ProfessionPhysician,
epidemiologist,
civil servant

In his positions, he had key roles in the Swedish response to the 2009 swine flu pandemic and the COVID-19 pandemic.[3][4]

Biography

Tegnell was born in Uppsala. He became a licensed physician at Lund University in 1985, subsequently interning at the county hospital in Östersund, and later specialised in infectious disease at Linköping University Hospital.[5] In that capacity, in 1990 he treated the first patient in Sweden with a viral hemorrhagic fever, believed to be a case to be either the Ebola or the Marburg virus disease.[6]

From 1990 to 1993 he worked for the WHO in Laos to create vaccination programs.[7] In an interview with Expressen, he describes his on-site work for the WHO with a Swedish expert team during the 1995 Ebola outbreak in Kikwit, Zaire as a formative experience.[8] From 2002 to 2003 he also worked as a national expert for the European Commission to prepare at the EU level for public health threats such as anthrax, smallpox and other infectious diseases.[5][2]

Anders Tegnell outside Karolinska Institute in 2020

Tegnell obtained a research-based senior Medical Doctorate from Linköping University in 2003 and a MSc in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2004.[9][10] He worked at the Swedish Institute for Communicable Disease Control (Smittskyddsinstitutet) 2004–2005 and the National Board of Health and Welfare from 2005.[9] As head of the Infectious Disease Control department at the agency, he had a key role in the Swedish large-scale vaccination program in preparation for the H1N1 swine flu pandemic in 2009.[2] From 2010 to 2012 he served as head of the Department for Knowledge-Based Policy.[9][11] He was department head at the Institute for Communicable Disease Control 2012–2013. Since 2013 he is the State Epidemiologist of Sweden,[9] first at the Institute for Communicable Disease Control, which in 2014 became part of the Public Health Agency of Sweden.

Anders Tegnell was elected member of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences in 2005.[9] His inaugural lecture was on the effect of pandemics on society.[12]

COVID-19 pandemic
Main article: COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden

On 2 April 2020, while the coronavirus pandemic was widespread in most Western countries, of which many had by then imposed quarantine measures, Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail reported that there were "no lockdowns, no school closures and no ban on going to the pub" in Sweden;[13] This was inaccurate, however, as secondary schools and universities were recommended to physically close and transfer to distance education on 17 March,[14] and on 24 March cafés, restaurants and bars were ordered to allow table service only.[15] Moreover, gatherings of more than 50 people had been banned in Sweden as of 27 March.[16][17]

Sweden's pandemic strategy has been described as trusting the public to act responsibly: instead of wide-ranging bans and restrictions, authorities have advised people to maintain good hand hygiene, work from home if possible and practice social distancing, while those over 70 have been urged to self-isolate as a precaution.[18]

Tegnell during the daily press conference during the COVID-19 pandemic in April, 2020.

Despite scepticism and criticism from a number of doctors and medical experts, as well as international news media, Sweden has defended its strategy, with Prime Minister Stefan Löfven referring to "common sense" and Tegnell saying that the strategy is rooted in a "long tradition" of respecting "free will", as well as the high level of trust and respect Swedes have for public authorities.[13] According to a survey conducted by Sifo, the population's confidence in the Public Health Agency increased from 65 percent to 74 percent between 9–12 March and 21–25 March.[19] A March 2020 survey, carried out by the same company for TV4, showed more than half (53%) of the Swedish population had trust in Tegnell, a higher number than for any of the current leaders of the Swedish political parties, while 18% said they didn't trust the state epidemiologist.[20] In an April survey, the share who said they trusted Tegnell had increased to 69%, while the number who said they didn't trust their state epidemiologist had fallen to 11%.[21][22]

The strategy was commonly attributed to Tegnell,[17] who was quoted as saying:[13]

We have so far not had very much of a spread [of the virus] into elderly homes and almost no spread into the hospitals, which is very important... We know that [with] these kinds of voluntary measures that we put in place in Sweden, we can basically go on with them for months and years if necessary. [The economy] has the potential to start moving as usual very, very quickly once these things are over.

and:[13]

In Sweden we are following the tradition that we have in Sweden and working very much with voluntary measures, very much with informing the public about the right things to do. That has worked reasonably well so far.

On 2 April 2020, Dagens Eko reported that significant spread of the coronavirus had occurred in retirement homes in at least 90 municipalities.[23] Previously, the government and the public health authorities had strongly advised against external visits to retirement homes, with several municipalities outright banning them. A nationwide ban on external visits to retirement homes came into force on 1 April.[24]

On 21 April 2020, Tegnell was interviewed by Marta Paterlini of Nature.[25] During the interview he said that:

Closing borders, in my opinion, is ridiculous, because COVID-19 is in every European country now.

and that:

closing schools is meaningless at this stage. Moreover, it is instrumental for psychiatric and physical health that the younger generation stays active.

On 28 April 2020, Tegnell was interviewed by Kim Hjelmgaard of USA TODAY. During the interview he "denied that herd immunity formed the central thrust of Sweden's containment plan". Tegnell says rather that:[26]

We are trying to keep transmission rates at a level that the Stockholm health system can sustain... We are not calculating herd immunity in this. With various measures, we are just trying to keep the transmission rate as low as possible... Any country that believes it can keep it out (Ed. note: by closing borders, shuttering businesses, etc.) will most likely be proven wrong at some stage. We need to learn to live with this disease... At a glance it looks to me that Sweden's economy is doing a lot better than others'. Our strategy has been successful because health care is still working. That's the measure we look at... What the crisis has shown is that we need to do some serious thinking about nursing homes because they have been so open to transmission [27] (Ed. note: more than a third of Sweden's COVID-19 fatalities have been reported in nursing homes) of the disease and we had such a hard time controlling it in that setting.

Personal life

Tegnell lives with his wife Margit, in Vreta Kloster (outside of Linköping), from where he commutes daily to his work in Solna, Stockholm. He has three daughters: Emily, Saskia and Annemick. In his spare time, he enjoys gardening and travelling.[28][2]

Honours, decorations, awards and distinctions

References
  1. Sveriges befolkning 1980, CD-ROM, version 1.00 (Sveriges Släktforskarförbund 2004).
  2. Mahmoud, Alexander; Delin, Mikael (11 March 2020). "Statsepidemiolog Anders Tegnell: Sverige har väldigt svårt att acceptera risker". DN (in Swedish).
  3. "Vem är Anders Tegnell och vad gör en statsepidemiolog?". MåBra (in Swedish). 20 March 2020. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  4. TT, Johan Nilsson / (27 March 2020). "Tegnell svarar på norsk kritik: "Gör det lätt för sig"". Svenska Dagbladet (in Swedish). Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  5. "Curriculum Vitae - Anders Tegnell" (PDF). European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Retrieved 4 April 2020.
  6. "Mötte första patienten med blödarfeber". Västerviks-Tidningen. Retrieved 26 April 2020.
  7. Delin, Mikael (11 March 2020). "Statsepidemiolog Anders Tegnell: Sverige har väldigt svårt att acceptera risker". Dagens Nyheter. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  8. Börjesson, Robert (2 April 2020). "Okända tragedin som formade Anders Tegnell". Expressen. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  9. Anderson, Björn (2016). Kungl Krigsvetenskapsakademien. Svenska Krigsmanna Sällskapet (till 1805), Kungl Krigsvetenskapsakademien. 20 år med akademien och dess ledamöter 1996–2016. Stockholm: Kungliga Krigsvetenskapsakademien. p. 61. ISBN 978-91-980878-8-8..
  10. Tegnell, Anders (2002). The epidemiology and consequences of wound infections caused by coagulase negative staphylococci after thoracic surgery. Linköping: Linköping University. ISBN 91-7373-186-2..
  11. Sveriges statskalender 2010. Stockholm: Fritzes. 2010. p. 254..
  12. Tegnell, Anders (2007). "Pandemiernas påverkan på samhället" (PDF). Kungl. Krigsvetenskapsakademiens Handlingar och Tidskrift. 5/2007: 76–79.
  13. Waldie, Paul (2 April 2020). "Why is Sweden staying open amid the coronavirus pandemic?". The Globe and Mail Inc.
  14. Dahlqvist, Maria (17 March 2020). "Gymnasieskolor och universitet rekommenderas stänga". SVT Nyheter (in Swedish). Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  15. "Table service only: Sweden's new restrictions for bars and restaurants". The Local. 24 March 2020. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  16. "Sweden bans public gatherings of more than 50 people: PM". Reuters. 27 March 2020. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
  17. Brolin, Mark (3 April 2020). "Sweden is risking a lot as its coronavirus experiment comes under strain". The Telegraph.
  18. Modig, Karolina; Smith, Saphora (1 April 2020). "Sweden defies lockdown trend, bets on residents acting responsibly". NBC News. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  19. Wennö, Jonathan. "Allmänhetens tillit, tankar och beteende under coronakrisen" (PDF) (in Swedish). Kantar Sifo. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  20. "Mer än hälften av svenskarna har förtroende för Anders Tegnell - Nyheterna - tv4.se". www.tv4.se (in Swedish). Retrieved 18 April 2020.
  21. "DN/Ipsos: Stort förtroende för Anders Tegnell". DN (in Swedish). 2 May 2020.
  22. Baker, Sinéad. "7 people in Sweden told us why they think their government made the right call in having no coronavirus lockdown". Business Insider.
  23. "Virus på äldreboenden i stora delar av landet". 2 April 2020.
  24. Malmén, Joel (31 March 2020). "Besöksförbud införs på Sveriges äldreboenden". SVT Nyheter. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  25. Paterlini, Marta (2020). "'Closing borders is ridiculous': The epidemiologist behind Sweden's controversial coronavirus strategy". Nature. doi:10.1038/d41586-020-01098-x. PMID 32317784.
  26. Hjelmgaard, Kim (28 April 2020). "Swedish official Anders Tegnell says 'herd immunity' in Sweden might be a few weeks away". Gannett Satellite Information Network. USA TODAY.
  27. Henley, Jon (3 June 2020). "We should have done more, admits architect of Sweden's Covid-19 strategy" – via www.theguardian.com.
  28. Westerlund, Torbjörn (18 April 2016). "Mötte första patienten med blödarfeber – Västerviks-Tidningen". VT (in Swedish).
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