Swedish COVID-19 Expert Says Death Rate of Elderly Could Be 'Worth It'

The top infectious disease expert in Sweden is under fire for a series of emails that seem to support herd immunity from the coronavirus.

In his emails obtained by Swedish journalists under the country’s freedom of information laws, Anders Tegnell said the death risk from the COVID-19 to the elderly could be “worth it.”

Tegnell previously denied supporting herd immunity as a faster way to spread the coronavirus despite understanding what the risks to Swedish residents would be, the Guardian reported.

“One point would be to keep schools open to reach herd immunity faster,” Tegnell wrote in an email to a Finnish colleague Mika Salminen, days before COVID-19 was considered a pandemic.

Tegnell went on to say in the email that “children are still going to spread the infection to other age groups,” which was suggested could reduce the spread of the coronavirus to at-risk age groups by 10% if schools were closed.

“Ten percent might be worth it?” he continued.

Reports out of Sweden has suggested that Tegnell deleted hundreds of emails that are trying to be recovered. It was unclear at the time of writing why the emails were deleted, but Tegnell told the Aftonbladet, “I delete a lot of emails that I do not consider relevant in a way that needs to be recorded.”

Tegnell maintains that herd immunity was not the reason he wanted to keep schools open.

“My comment was on a possible effect, not on an expected one, that was part of the assessment of the appropriateness of the measure,” he told Emanuel Karlsten, the journalist who obtained the emails. “Keeping schools open to gain immunity was therefore never relevant.”

Sweden did close schools for those over 16, but has kept younger students in classes full time, giving fines to families that kept their children home. The country has also banned gatherings of 50 or more people to promote social distancing and has asked its residents to work from home if possible. The country’s stores, bars, restaurants, and gyms remain open.

Sweden has over 86,000 positive cases of the coronavirus and over 5,800 COVID-19 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.