Hospital Covid Seminar Became a Spreader Event–Sweden

About thirty employees of Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden are confirmed to have been infected with Covid-19. Twenty of those tested positive were among some 400 hospital staff attending an educational event on the 19th November.

The event, ‘OP-IVA-dag’ of Sahlgrenska University hospital, is an annual event for the Hospital’s Surgery-, Anesthetics- and Intensive Care Units staff. Last year it was cancelled due to the Corona Virus situation. This year, the education was focused on Covid-19. The main lecturer was Anders Tegnell from FoHM – the Swedish National Public Health Authority — who lectured for four hours.

In the days following the event, some participants started to feel symptoms. After PCR tests had been administered, it has now been found that 30 of the Hospital staff have been infected. 20 of those had participated in the event.

Peter Dahm, Head of the Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care at Sahlgrenska University Hospital, said in an interview with GT , that they had carefully followed the recommendations [by FoHM – the Swedish National Public Health Authority].

This is an unfortunate time for a corona cluster to spread among Intensive Care Unit staff in the region’s main hospital. According to FoHM statistics Nov 30, the confirmed cases per 100,000 people in Västra Götaland had gone up from 107 to 163 during the last 7 days. While the infection rates in Västra Götaland are relatively low, the national average being 200, and the region’s acceleration of infection about average for Sweden, a growth rate of 150% in one week still does suggest the strain put on the intensive care will increase.

Use of Masks at Sahlgrenska University Hospital

Masks must be used by all staff when working close to the patient within two meters. Patients and visitors to the hospital’s premises do not need to wear masks
Note that it is still important to keep your distance from each other. [Dec 2, 2021]

The Swedish media has been focusing on the dinner part of the event, blaming the hospital staff for ‘”Partying” and spreading the contamination to the ward.

In reality, the day was an educational event, where all the recommendations by the National Public Health Authority were strictly followed. One would assume that participation in such an even is more or less expected. The hospital employees are unfairly lambasted, while the real problem, that the recommendations by the Public Health Authority are inadequate, is not mentioned.

There is a double standard in Sweden, where ‘everyone’ is expected to follow the recommendations of FoHM, while at the same time, the health care professionals are expected to know better, and to follow a different standard. Here the hospital staff was in an impossible situation –The lecturer on the event, Anders Tegnell of FoHM, is the most vocal proponent and advocate for the theories by John Giesecke, which have become the official policy in Sweden. Giesecke claims, among other things, that wearing masks in public has no effect on the spread of the epidemic. Wearing face mask during the lecture would have been equal to open criticism of his policies. That would be unthinkable in Sweden.