Tegnell on the dispute with the WHO: "Not surprised"

Tegnell on the WHO scandal: "Complicated organization"

Of: 

Fanny Westling  

Published: Today 09.55 

Anders Tegnell. Photo: LOTTE FERNVALL  

NEWS 

The top job at WHO would be the crowning glory of Anders Tegnell's toil during the pandemic.  

Now he tells why it never happened. 

- If you have had anything to do with the WHO, you are not surprised, he says to SvD.  

In March 2022, it was clear that former state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell would get a top job at the WHO.  

The Public Health Agency sent out a press release in which they described that his assignment was to be a senior expert for the vaccine group. 

- I have worked with vaccines for 30 years and at the same time have always been passionate about international issues. Now I get the chance to contribute to the extensive international work, he said then. 

But just a month later, FHM backed down. They had been put on the back foot - Tegnell had never got a job.  

He would instead remain a senior expert at the agency. In an interview with Svenska dagbladet, he now tells himself what actually happened. 

- It is a rather complicated organization. After all, this wasn't a job that actually existed, but I was going there as an expert on loan, and the appointment procedure dragged on. So in the end we all got tired of waiting this out.  

The pandemic is over - soon  

Today, the effects of corona are not felt so much in Sweden - but the WHO still defines it as a pandemic.

So Anders Tegnell thinks that it will remain the winter season until the end, but that soon after that they will come with the announcement that the pandemic is over.  

- We have vaccines and treatments in place, and the omicron variant is starting to resemble the flu more and more in terms of healthcare needs. Then it begins to approach a situation where it is not reasonable to call it a pandemic anymore, he tells SvD.