Celebrity diplomacy during the Covid-19 pandemic? The chief state epidemiologist as “the face of the Swedish experiment”

Abstract

Sweden’s distinctive approach to the pandemic has challenged its public image among domestic and foreign audiences. The Swedish government has primarily based its policy on Public Health Agency recommendations of physical distancing, rather than the adoption of new legislative measures issued by the cabinet and legislature. This approach has been critiqued, since it is based on liberal voluntary recommendations and nudging, as opposed to a strict lockdown of society. The Swedish take on Covid-19 then stands out internationally, not the least in comparison to its Scandinavian neighbors Denmark and Norway, two states that have opted for a more restrictive approach. Sweden’s high Covidrelated death toll has been linked to the country’s distinctive non-lockdown approach. Of importance, here is the Swedish government’s tendency to rely almost exclusively on the knowledge and expertise of the Public Health Agency rather than government-led policy-making. Chief State Epidemiologist Anders Tegnell has become “the face of the Swedish experiment”, increasingly known to global audiences, having acquired celebrity power, enabling him to influence the image of Sweden abroad. The perception of Tegnell’s influence has even led some of his most vocal critics to accuse him of deception and in so doing damaging the image of Sweden abroad (Pamment 2021). Yet, Tegnell’s acquired celebrity status is of a particular kind, and as such, is not located within the entertainment industry or common understandings of popular culture. Neither is Anders Tegnell a celebrity politician (Pace & Bergman Rosamond 2018, Wheeler 2013)—he is not an internationally recognized world leader nor located within the traditional institution of state-centered diplomacy. The absence of symbolic leadership on the part of more traditional Swedish political actors, combined with the decision to strictly follow the recommendations of scientists, nonetheless have led to a pronounced focus on Tegnell’s persona in traditional and digital media worldwide. Tegnell’s celebrity status, moreover, has been magnified by the urgency of the global health crisis itself, with Covid19 being the subject of many debates in the public sphere. In particular commentators have sought to understand the distinctiveness of the Swedish approach to Covid-19 and the absence of thoroughgoing restrictions. In his role as an expert civil servant, Tegnell represents the Public Health Agency’s efforts of “health diplomacy”, but his performance during the pandemic, and the reception thereof, surpasses the anonymous role of an expert advisor. Thus, Sweden’s Chief State Epidemiologist Anders Tegnell embodies traits of a celebrity diplomat by becoming the most visible public face of Sweden’s outlier Covid-19 strategy. Indeed, celebrities come in different shapes and forms, including entertainers, influencers, CEOs of big corporate entities such as Bill Gates, public intellectuals and many others (Bergman Rosamond & Gregoratti 2019). Moreover, celebrity diplomacy and humanitarianism are amplified by the blurriness between celebrity, diplomacy and the digitalization of media (Bergman Rosamond 2016). Below, we first demonstrate how Tegnell could be considered a celebrity diplomat – while challenging some of the prevalent patterns of celebrity in global politics. Second, we discuss how Tegnell’s celebrity diplomacy has shaped the perception of Sweden during the global health crisis. We propose that Tegnell’s public role both aligns with and disrupts narratives of the Swedish political model. We conclude by reflecting on the implications of expert celebrity for the future of public diplomacy practices and scholarly analyses.