Swedish towns ban face masks despite mounting Covid death toll
Vetoes follow a string of anti-mask statements by nation’s top officials
Towns across Sweden are banning the use of face masks despite facing the twin threats of widespread Covid outbreaks and a slow rollout of vaccines.
Officials in Halmstad municipality recently forced a teacher to remove their mask and banned the use of all forms of PPE in schools. And while “the municipality eventually backed down”, other “examples of mask bans keep popping up in Sweden”, according to an article on The Conversation by two Swedish academics.
These “local mask bans” are a “logical product of nine months of consistent anti-mask statements by the Swedish state”, write Tine Walravens, assistant professor in international economics at the Copenhagen Business School, and Paul O'Shea, senior lecturer in South-East Asian Studies at Lund University.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The country’s “public health agency has consistently stated that masks are ineffective and that their use could actually increase the spread of Covid-19”, the pair explain.
Indeed, as France24 notes, Sweden “stood apart from other nations by shunning lockdowns” throughout last year and was “one of the few holdouts in recommending widespread mask use, even after the World Health Organization changed their advice in June”.
In the wake of the advice change, Health Minister Lena Hallengren said that the Swedish government did not have a culture of making decisions about protective clothing such as masks, and that the evidence supporting the wearing of face coverings was “astonishingly weak”.
Stockholm did eventually U-turn on face masks, with Prime Minister Stefan Lofven saying in December that the government was “recommending face masks and that they should be used on public transport at certain times”.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
The government’s previous advice appears to have stuck, however, with continuing reports of localised mask bans even after Sweden imposed lockdown measures in early January, as the nation’s infection and death rates continued to outstrip those of Nordic neighbours.
Sweden has now reported more than 600,000 coronavirus cases and more than 12,000 related deaths. Meanwhile, fewer than four vaccine doses have been administered for every 100 people in the ten million-strong population, according to latest tracking from Oxford University.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.
-
'Republicans want to silence Israel's opponents'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Poland, Germany nab alleged anti-Ukraine spies
Speed Read A man was arrested over a supposed Russian plot to kill Ukrainian President Zelenskyy
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Today's political cartoons - April 19, 2024
Cartoons Friday's cartoons - priority delivery, USPS on fire, and more
By The Week US Published
-
The best health care systems in the world
In the spotlight Getting sick has never felt better
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
Dengue hits the Americas hard and early
Speed Read Puerto Rico has declared an epidemic as dengue cases surge
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Covid four years on: have we got over the pandemic?
Today's Big Question Brits suffering from both lockdown nostalgia and collective trauma that refuses to go away
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
How happy is Finland really?
Today's Big Question Nordic nation tops global happiness survey for seventh year in a row with 'focus on contentment over joy'
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
The hollow classroom
Opinion Remote school let kids down. It will take much more than extra tutoring for kids to recover.
By Mark Gimein Published
-
How Tehran became the world's nose job capital
Under the radar Iranian doctors raise alarm over low costs, weak regulation and online influence of 'Western beauty standards'
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Africa's renewed battle against female genital mutilation
Under the radar Campaigners call for ban in Sierra Leone after deaths of three girls as coast-to-coast convoy prepares to depart
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Excess screen time is making children only see what is in front of them
Under the radar The future is looking blurry. And very nearsighted.
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published