Tegnell’s new life – meeting friends and family again

Criticism, anger and threats. But also lots of gratitude and praise. For Anders Tegnell, the covid pandemic meant that what he did at work was seen by millions of people. But the focus that became around him as a person will never be fully understood by the former state epidemiologist.

About 20 fabric figurines in various sizes lie on a tray in a glass cabinet. Most have a white shirt and light blue trousers, all have glasses. The largest of them is wearing a nightgown. The dolls are handmade by one of them who wanted to show his appreciation for Anders Tegnell.

– Now they have stopped coming, but they are certainly quite funny, he says with satisfaction.

Here in the house between the fields outside Linköping, Anders Tegnell grew up. Here in what once belonged to a vicarage, his own three daughters have also grown up and now grandchildren often visit. The place has become the family’s gathering point.

– Down there we had a big party tent last summer when we had a party, he says and points.

Spending time in larger groups and meeting friends and family was something Anders Tegnell missed during the pandemic years. While he was working so much that there wasn’t really time for much else. In the book he is now releasing, written together with the journalist and author Fanny Härgestam, he describes how he went out to clear the garden and came in with bleeding lacerations. It was a relaxation.

Not taught us

When the coronavirus began to spread around the world, Anders Tegnell was an unknown person to most people, with occasional media appearances in the bag. In the spring of 2020, everything changed. Daily press conferences, newscasts and interviews. The Public Health Authority and above all he himself was at the center of the crisis-ridden society. He was expected to have answers to things that no one knew yet. The working days revolved around 2 pm when the press meetings were held.

Even in other countries, state epidemiologists became famous, but the personality cult that arose around Anders Tegnell was unique. His face appeared on posters, t-shirts and tattoos.

– – It crept up and surprised me, I have no explanation as to why it happened that way. But maybe it was positive that there was a face to connect the messages to?

When the question of care for the elderly comes up, some lines of concern appear on the diligently depicted face. When statistics came from Italy during the beginning of the pandemic, there was a theory that generational housing is more common there and that elderly people in Sweden, who live in nursing homes to a greater extent, would be more protected. It turned out to be wrong.

TT: Would you have done anything differently to better protect the elderly?

– I am very doubtful about that. It is not really the Public Health Agency’s area, although we are in contact on certain issues. It is not us who direct and set the scene, so to speak. But several major investigations had pointed to shortcomings before the pandemic. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to have gotten much better, there is still a high percentage of hourly employees in many places.

– Elderly care didn’t immediately become a thing in the election campaign either. Then it felt like we had learned nothing.

Agreed

During the pandemic, there was a loud debate among scientists about which were the best ways to curb the spread of infection. Masks came into focus as did school closures. In both of these cases, Sweden took a different path than most other countries. The Public Health Authority and not least Anders Tegnell were questioned.

TT: Did it ever happen that you wondered if everyone else was right and we in Sweden were completely wrong?

– Not really. We discussed the strategies constantly and thought based on the current situation. My picture is also not that we disagreed so much. When I talked to my colleagues in other countries, we often agreed. But in many other countries the issues became much more political.

That the covid issue was moved from the experts to the politicians’ table in many countries quickly became clear. In February 2020, when the spread of infection in many countries began to gain momentum, he discussed with his Nordic colleagues whether a common line for the countries would not be the best. He got the impression that several of them agreed. Shortly afterwards, the governments had taken over the issue from the state epidemiologists. There would not be a Nordic consensus.

African focus

The former state epidemiologist has no immediate plans to stop working. He remains at the Public Health Agency as a senior expert and now works in a project that provides support to the African infection control unit Africa CDC. Africa is a familiar part of the world for him. When he was twelve, his father’s agronomy brought the family to Ethiopia. He himself has worked in what was then Zaire during the Ebola epidemic and realized the importance of communication and creating local understanding for things like vaccination.

– The colonial legacy when we in the West try to transfer our solutions to other parts of the world does not work well. Just look at the pandemic. Many African countries, such as Uganda, were not particularly hard hit by the infection.

Anders Tegnell saw that the consequences of the closed communities and schools were devastating.

– Many of the children never came back to school again and girls were hit particularly hard, he says.

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