The United States is struggling with the coronavirus pandemic. While the situation in New York City is dramatic, Donald Trump prefers to criticize little Sweden. A virologist responds immediately.
- Because of a lax ban on contacts : Donald Trump complains about Sweden in the corona crisis .
- The US president is railing against the planned herd immunity in the Scandinavian country.
- Sweden's state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell has an unequivocal answer to Trump .
Munich / Washington - The USA is now the corona hotspot * worldwide. Donald Trump's government is struggling to contain or respond appropriately to the coronavirus pandemic * . Trump announces a new "miracle weapon" almost every day. The US president, however, prefers to distribute against other countries - namely against the comparatively small Scandinavian EU country Sweden .
Corona crisis worldwide: US President Donald Trump critically refers to Sweden
The Republican was asked which country he would give advice on, which he considered to be too lax on issues such as the ban on contacts * and social distancing.
US President Donald #Trump accuses the WHO of failing to warn of entry from China.
It is still unclear what he is accusing his trading advisor who warned about in January. #Corona virus
“Now there is talk about Sweden . Sweden is suffering extraordinarily, you know that, right? " Trump said in Washington on Tuesday evening (local time):" Sweden makes this 'herd', they call it 'the herd'. ”And Trump actually meant the so-called herd immunity * , after which A certain (high) percentage must have been infected with the Sars-CoV-2 pathogen before the number of infections has declined in the long term.
Despite the corona virus pandemic: hardly any exit restrictions in Sweden
To put it in perspective: Sweden, in contrast to Germany, for example, has only very limited exit restrictions * and largely leaves social life as usual - although the number of infections with the corona virus has recently increased rapidly. Or rather: precisely because of that?
Sweden's state epidemiologist: Anders Tegnell (left).
© AFP / JONATHAN NACKSTRAND
"Yes, you can't take that seriously," said Sweden's state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell * about Trump's statements on Swedish TV: "It is of course very difficult in Sweden, not least in the health sector. But compared to the situation in New York, it continues to work pretty well in Sweden. ”Tough answer from Scandinavia.
Coronavirus pandemic: Many more corona infected people in New York City than in all of Sweden
For comparison: As of Wednesday afternoon, April 8, only in New York City (estimated nine million inhabitants) around 140,000 people were infected with the novel lung disease, according to agency information, around 5,500 people died here as a result of a corona infection .
In all of Sweden (10.3 million inhabitants) - which is of course much more extensive - at the same time, according to estimates by Johns Hopkins University, there were just over 8,400 registered infections and 687 reported deaths from coronavirus .
After criticism from Donald Trump: Sweden virologist justifies Corona strategy herd immunity
"I don't know what he means by this, but we who work with infectious diseases know that this type of disease will continue to spread until we reach immunity in the population," Tegnell continued, apparently laughing at Trump Herd immunity : "There is no other way to stop it."
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* Merkur.de is part of the Germany-wide Ippen-Digital editors network