An American friend asked me on Facebook "David, I've been reading about Sweden's "strategy." I'm so confused. How is this logical?"

Here was my answer, which I think may help explain the situation - and a hypothesis to end. 1/9 #Sweden #Sverige #COVID19 #tegnell

First issue we have is the government is constitutionally not allowed to "lead" on this. As part of an anti-corruption approach they're not allowed to influence the government authorities, like the Ministry for Health, and essentially have to follow their advice. 2/9 #Sweden

They're also not legally able to restrict people's movement except in an extremely limited way. #Sweden #Sverige #CoronaVirusSverige 3/9

Here in #Sweden, apart from close to permanent residence (and even that distance isn't defined), you can't even stop people wandering or even camping on your land - it's a universal right of public access. 4/9

There was a new law passed today to give some more power, but it's still limited, I haven't studied it but I think they can now actually order shopping centres and restaurants to close. #COVID19 #Sweden 5/9

So - the power lies with a small handful of bureaucrats. The most powerful of whom seems to be the Chief Epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, with it would appear the support of his boss, General Director Johan Carlson 6/9

I did a little research and discovered Tegnell did his Masters in Epidemiology in London where the UK's Chief Medical Officer, Chris Whitty was a professor 7/9

Whitty was the one promoting the "herd immunity" idea in the UK before Imperial College presented the government with an analysis showing that could lead to millions of deaths. The UK government rapidly changed directions and called for a lockdown. 8/9

The Swedish government doesn't have that power, and I'm concerned that what is happening here is that Whitty and his former student #Tegnell have a theory about how to deal with an epidemic, and they're testing it right now, and #Sweden is the Lab 9/9

PS: One of Tegnell's predecessor at the Health Authority Johan Giesecke also did his Masters at the same London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, so there seems to be a strong connection between the Authority and this school,