Tegnell is reluctant to speculate on how the pandemic will develop over the winter, but does not think a scenario similar to that in the UK is most likely.

– It is very difficult to know, and this disease has surprised us before. But I have a hard time seeing that we would get in a very serious situation. We have already gone in and started giving a third dose to the most fragile, and we have access to a lot of vaccines, he says.

Complicated image

The state epidemiologist says that it is difficult to pit one country against another and find simple explanations for why one is more difficult to hit in a given situation, as the picture is often very complex.

– It is very clear that it is multifactorial. It has to do with how many chronic diseases there are, overcrowding, multi-generational housing … And purely cultural things like how to socialize. We have stuck to the fact that there are simple explanations, simple solutions, but it does not.

If there were to be a situation with a sharp increase in the spread of infection in Sweden, is the Swedish Public Health Agency considering that more people should receive a booster injection than the groups they have talked about so far?

– We look at it all the time to assess which groups can be considered. It is followed up continuously.

“Significantly milder disease”

What is most important, that unvaccinated Swedes receive basic protection or that already vaccinated people receive their third dose?

– Absolutely the former. There are exceptions, small groups that are very difficult to immunosuppress. But even the really elderly and fragile almost always get a much milder disease after vaccination.

– Now that we are starting to see a certain increase in breakthrough infections in society, it is definitely more important to give those who have not been vaccinated their first injections. In Sweden, it is 20-40-year-olds who run the pandemic, and it is in that age range that you need to get the coverage up.