Dec.4, 2021, from Deborah

It's difficult re: Tegnell, the implementation of vax passports goes against statements he has previously made. We were also told late September the virus was endemic, to expect occasional resurgences but “to get on with it”. The feeling here is the pandemic is over - plexiglass is coming down, big groups of friends are meeting up, restaurants are crowded, public transport is packed, very very few people wear masks anymore. So then to impose this measure, quite out of the blue…

I watched the press conference with Tegnell when he announced the vax passports, and he was aggressive and defensive. It was really hard for me, who has watched these press conferences religiously since the beginning, to read him. But it was also very disappointing. He has gotten enormous accolades for standing against the accepted narrative - so why blow his legacy on this? One thing to note, it was suggested during that press conference that gyms, restaurants, museums could be next to require vax passports… but this hasn’t been mentioned again in the subsequent press conferences held by other Public Health Agency staff. A reporter asked if there had seen any uptick in vaccination rates since the vax passport measure was announced, and the Public Health Agency conceded there hadn’t been.

It should be noted that since the introduction of vax passports, an “unprecedented” number of complaints has been lodged with the Parliamentary Ombudsmen https://www.jo.se/en/, which has the mandate "to ensure that public authorities and their staff comply with the laws and other statutes governing their actions.” Issues regarding sufficient consultation with stakeholders and proportionality have been mentioned - ie vax passports are a hammer-fisted one-sided decision.

The last press conference was all about omicron - the Public Health Agency stated there was insufficient evidence to date to make any determination of its characteristics. All the press wanted to focus on was why there weren’t more restrictions being implemented to save us from this terrible variant. With the odd exception, the press has been terrible through this (like they have been everywhere).