This week we were joined by Professor Aman Russom, head of the bionanotechnology division at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, who works on the development and delivery of low-cost medical testing and technology for public health. Since March, Sweden has been functioning more or less the way New Jersey will function when it reopens.
Unlike the United States, Sweden never applied a total lockdown during COVID-19. Instead, relying heavily on voluntary stay at home protocols, hand-washing and recommended social distancing, Sweden focused on asking those who had even mild symptoms to stay at home and provided immediate income support to enable workers to do so. The authorities hoped thereby to prevent spread. Professor. Russom felt that Sweden’s approach had failed in regard to protecting the elderly, stating they should have done more to protect the elderly, and vulnerable populations, as 50 percent of those lost to COVID-19 were in eldercare. Also, Sweden’s incidence of cases and death was much higher than their Nordic neighbors. The Swedish experience underscores the importance of being on guard for a resurgence of COVID as the state reopens.
Professor Russom stated that while a vaccine is of course the “ultimate goal” in the fight against COVID-19, the self-collected, fully automated nucleic acid extraction test developed by Rutgers’ RUCDR Infinite Biologics (i.e., the Rutgers “saliva test”) will be a “game changer,” if it can be made widely available. He also believes that reliable antibody tests will be helpful. Researchers in Sweden, as in the U.S., continue to work around the clock on vaccine and testing development. More than 103 people attended this webinar.
