Corona Archives • SwedeInternational

The corona commission

Mats Melin new Swedish corona commission — New corona commission leader Mats Melin introduces himself while appropriately distancing himself from party politicians
pic: SvD Ari Luostarinen

After the first suggestions regarding the directives and staffing of the coming corona commission were rejected by a majority of parliament, the government has now put a plan together for the corona commission. In a press conference this afternoon, DN reports, the government announced that lawyer and legal consultant Mats Melin will head up the commission, and that the commission will be comprised of six or seven other, as yet unnamed, persons.

When the idea of a commission was first floated, the governing Social Democratic party’s suggestion was not to publish any results until after the next election. “We want to remind everyone that what we hear from the municipalities and regions is that they’re a little tired of reporting, and that they need to focus on dealing with the virus. I don’t want to have a situation in which we put yet another burden on them” was the word then from Prime Minister Löfven. In addition, it was said, the staffing of the commission would largely be made up of people with specific party affiliations.

The response from the majority in parliament was along the lines of “nice try,” and the government has since been forced to back away from both suggestions. Which is good since, as DN reported a couple weeks ago, the government has a poor track record when it comes to corona-related transparency. Emails have a way of being erased, DN wrote, and meeting notes have a way of being classified as “working material” and are thus not part of the official (and public) record. This can still happen in the future, but at least the grossest risks might be avoided by more strongly separating the commission from party politicians.

The corona commission that will be formed sometime in the near future must now be staffed by people who have the trust from all the different parties in parliament. “I think it’s extremely important that those who are chosen have the trust of all parties, and that they can’t be suspected of favoring one party’s interests over another’s” said Left party leader Jonas Sjöstedt to SvD. In a remarkable constellation, the Sweden Democrats, Christian Democrats, and the Center, Liberal and Moderate parties are all united on this. (No word from the Green party but one must assume that they’re somewhere behind the Social Democrats.)

The plan is that Sweden’s elder care during the corona crisis will be the focus of the first part of the investigation, with a report due to be presented in the fall. A more in depth report will come in the fall of 2021, and then on February 28th, 2022, the final results of the commission’s findings will be presented. “I’m looking forward to seeing the results” said Löfven.

Another important date is the next election: September 11, 2022.

3 March Good eating for the Corona virus

good eating in virus times
pic: bullens.se

Swedes who are nervous about the spread, and effects, of the Corona virus are hoarding dry goods, SvD reports. Dry yeast is apparently good to have on hand if the crisis hits hard, as it has sold out in many stores. Frozen food, rice and canned goods have also sold in higher than normal volume.

Bullen’s “pilsnerkorv” is a popular product to hoard. This canned “sausage product” has, in reality, no beer at all in the conserving liquid, sadly. The product was introduced in 1953 and made famous by its endorsement by a famous actor at the time, Erik “Bullen” Berglund. Berglund recommended eating the sausage by laying it on a piece of hardbread, along with a bay leaf, topped by a squeeze of his favorite mustard.

Dry pasta also sold at slightly higher levels than normal last week, reported Willy’s store manager Anders Selsborg in Uppsala. However, he said to SvD, it was hard to know if it was because of hoarding or it was because of February’s paycheck coming in.

26 Jan. – travel advisory issued

Sweden today went out with a travel advisory regarding the Wuhan area in China, where the Corona virus has its epicentrum: “One should refrain from traveling in the Hubei region if it is not absolutely necessary.” Earlier today, both Denmark and Norway went out with similar advisories, DN reports.

Japan has arranged to evacuate 430 of its citizens out from the Wuhan area via a specially chartered plane, and France and Russia are currently negotiating for the evacuation of their citizens, SvD writes.

How worried should we be? Anders Tegnell, epidemiologist at the Public Health Agency of Sweden (Folkhälsomyndigheten), says his understanding of the situation has now changed a bit. “In the beginning, I was feeling more secure. But now the picture has changed a little.” “Just now,” he added, “we’re in an early stage of infection, and it is restricted to a relatively limited area. And the Chinese have apparently the possibility to reduce travel enormously. This should reduce the rate it spreads. But sooner or later someone will slip through.”

Hospitals’ scenarios assume that someone will come in after a trip to China, feeling ill, DN notes. At this point, they will run some tests to see if they are infected with the virus. This will take 5 or 6 hours since the sample has to be taken by car or by plane to the Health Agency’s lab in Solna. If the results are positive, they’ll be isolated because of contagion, and the staff must wear protective clothing when in contact with the patient. China has said the number of infections is now just over 2000.

Dick Harrison, resident historian at SvD, is on record saying that the chances for any recurrence of the Black Death are minimal. So that’s good news.

25 Jan. – Corona virus affects Swedish companies in China

The Corona virus hasn’t hit Sweden (likely it will, maybe it’s won’t), but it has hit Swedish businesses in China. H&M, Ikea, Ericsson, Volvo, Scania, Alfa Laval, Assa Abloy (also Finnish), Sandvik, SKF, Atlas Copco, AstraZeneca and Elektrolux are the big ones, that between them have tens of thousands of employees.

H&M and Ikea have closed their stores in the Wuhan area (where the virus is centered, for the moment at least), reports SvD, and are letting their employees stay at home with full salary. H&M has nine boutiques in the Wuhan area and tens of thousands of employees in China. Volvo has no presence of its own in Wuhan, but is stopping all trips to the area, which can affect resellers, according to DN. So far, none of the companies have told DN that they know of any employees being infected. Many employees are also off for the Chinese new year celebrations.

Not Swedish news exactly, but the Wuhan hospital is now overwhelmed with patients and they’ve begun sending people home: The Chinese authorities have already started building two new hospitals nearby – one is due to be able to begin taking patients in the beginning of February. Problematic, yes, but fun comparison – Ny Karolinska hospital in Solna took 8 years from the first spade hitting the dirt to full operation.

France has confirmed the first case of the Corona virus in Europe – one in Paris and one in the Bordeaux region. Both persons had been to China recently. French authorities are asking people that have been to China and think they might have the virus to not go to the emergency room.

In China itself, there are nearly one thousand confirmed cases. There could be many more even as this post is being written.