I shall summarize this press conference, introducing you meanwhile to the world’s ugliest and stupidest idiot. But stop a while.
On this day, there were 417,000 cases throughout the world. There were 2806 cases in Sweden; 66 dead; and 178 patients in the intensive care.
Look at that: both the national epidemiologist and the vice-national epidemiologist were at the podiums. That means two Anders: Anders Tegnell (in the middle with the red shirt) and Anders Wallensten, next to him to the right.
Anders Tegnell on the current situation: we had fair numbers over the weekend, but now we’ve had a couple of days with increasing numbers. We have to see what happens now. There’s been a few days of increasing numbers especially in Stockholm.
He adds: Those that die have been in the hospital for maybe 4 weeks. We still want to keep the curve under the capacity of the hospitals. It’s going to be very hard.
After Tegnell spoke, so did Taha Alexandersson (the lone woman) about medical equipment. And finally the man on opposite end spoke — he’s from the school system, and he was talking about what to do about all the closed schools and graduation ceremonies.
And now, ladies and gentlemen, we have entered the Ugly Stupid Pig portion of this press conference. It’s this ugly loser in the press corps:
Except, he never actually introduces himself or his media bureau, so he could be anybody at all.
Ugly loser spits out: I have a question for Socialstyrelsen (shoving his ugly loser hands in the direction of Taha Alexandersson, while looking as though he wants to kill her).
His question: You say that medical staff should feel protected from coronavirus infection. How are you going to guarantee that? And if there is a medical staffer in Sweden (now with his voice rising unsteadily with emotion!) who feels at risk for infection, and doesn’t feel that their bosses listen to their complaints, can they turn to Socialstyrelsen so that you (another ugly gesture at Taha Alexandersson) will do something about it?
Taha Alexandersson responds: Socialstyrelsen doesn’t take in complaints, but I truly hope that we give the best support we can to employers so that they can adequately support their employees. I hope that medical staffers, and I think that they do, turn to their employer for support. We are a knowledge-steering authority, not an enforcement authority.
Here’s Taha Alexandersson as she listens to the sick pig and answers him:
And here’s the sick pig breathing heavily and about to explode at the indignity of needing to give her time to answer:
But it doesn’t end there! Sick pig is not about to end his righteous assault. In his sneering, ugly voice, he decides to ask again:
Sick pig with sneering, ugly voice: You said that medical staffers shouldn’t feel unsafe, and I ask again, how are you going to guarantee that?
Taha Alexandersson takes a breath:
Taha Alexandersson: Just as I cannot guarantee how coronavirus is going to spread, or what the global shortage of medical supplies will look like, I also cannot stand here and guarantee something that’s not in my power to guarantee. What I can guarantee is that Socialstyrelsen will do its utmost to work to give advice and recommendations and support so that medical staff don’t feel unsafe. Thank you.
But the curt “thank you” didn’t work … sick pig comes back with more.
Sick pig (sounding like a 2-year-old at this point; no, wait, 2-year-olds actually sound cute): Then why did you saaaaaay that no medical staff should feel unsafe? If you now say you can’t guarantee it???
Taha Alexandersson: Then if I can re-phrase myself: Socialstyrelsen is working to try to support employers, as well as municipalities, so that they will be able to make sure that their medical staff don’t feel unsafe. Thank you.
But take a look at sick pig’s face, and tell me you don’t think he’s going to harp on about this:
Sick pig: So what should a medical staff who feels unsafe doooo?
Taha Alexandersson, now having to explain two plus two equals four: I hope that all employees in all workplaces know where to turn if you feel unsafe. I turn to my employer.
So Mr. Sick Pig now needs to do his final business, which is, to ask his questions again of the white men on the stage, because otherwise, he can’t be satisfied. With a suddenly innocent expression on his face (at least he tries; there’s no rubbing off that muck), and having exchanged his sneering angry voice for an appropriately worried but respectful one, and glancing lovingly upwards at the white men, he asks:
Sick pig: we’ve gotten reports that there’s people out doing the medical work who are worried about infection, they’re worried that equipment will run out ..
Anders Tegnell answers quietly, just repeating what Taha Alexandersson already said: that’s a dialogue that they need to have with their employers, we can’t just stand here and discuss how that dialogue should proceed. I can only say that which Taha has said (!!!!), that we on this level will do everything we can so this will go as well as possible. We will give the best advice possible, and we will do all we can so that we can get the right equipment.
And now that Sick Pig has gotten his assurance from the white man, he calms down and nods even, to show how good and obliging he truly is.
So now that sick pig is out of the way, we can move on to the next question, which came from Johan Nilsson of TVT (?). He asks: do you see that you risk confusing people when you say at these press conferences the the situation is stable, then a few hours later Stockholm City comes out and says that the storm is upon us? What can you say about this discrepancy?
Anders Tegnell: It’s not a discrepancy.
Johan Nilsson: well, then, that the general public won’t understand …
Anders Tegnell cuts him off, and turns the question back: It’s also your responsibility, as journalists, to be clear that what we report at these press conferences is just the situation at an instant, and things can happen very quickly. Also, there’s 2 different things we’re talking about: we’re talking about how the epidemic spreads, that’s one thing, and we’re talking about the medical situation in Stockholm, that’s the other thing. They’re related, but they’re not going to be at the same level. I think we have a responsibility to be very clear in our communications so that this doesn’t cause worry to people.
Later on, after a few minutes of boring questions, something of a repetition occurred when a journalist asked this of Anders Tegnell:
Yesterday, you describe the situation as stable, while the authorities in Stockholm said something completely different. Why was there such a difference?
Anders Tegnell, getting saucy: I answered that question once, but I can answer it again.
Tegnell continued: We are talking about two different things. I never said the situation in Stockholm was calm. I said there was pressure on the medical situation there, and that was also repeated on the evening news. But the epidemic spread in Stockholm that we’ve seen so far, at least till yesterday, looks quite fair. Now, for two days, we’ve been seeing quite a few more cases. That changes things. But it doesn’t change was I said yesterday, which was talking about two different things.
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