...The precautions that Swedes have been advised to adopt ‐ no gatherings of more than 50 people (revised down from 500 last Friday), avoid social contact if over 70 or ill, try to work from home, table service only in bars and restaurants ‐ seem to have allayed public fears that the shocking images from hospitals in Italy and Spain could be repeated here.
The prime minister, Stefan Löfven, has urged Swedes to behave "as adults" and not to spread "panic or rumours".
Panic, though, is exactly what many within Sweden’s scientific and medical community are starting to feel. A petition signed by more than 2,000 doctors, scientists, and professors last week ‐ including the chairman of the Nobel Foundation, Prof Carl-Henrik Heldin ‐ called on the government to introduce more stringent containment measures. "We’re not testing enough, we’re not tracking, we’re not isolating enough ‐ we have let the virus loose," said Prof Cecilia Söderberg-Nauclér, a virus immunology researcher at the Karolinska Institute. "They are leading us to catastrophe."
