The need for scientific expertise in combination with a strategy built on individual responsibility, rationality, and “common sense” permeated the main Swedish national narrative, supporting a noncoercive strategy that clearly deviated from what much of the world did. This narrative was primarily promoted by the Public Health Agency of Sweden (PHAS), which dominated media reporting during the early part of the Corona crisis. Voices with opposing views were heard too, but the main reason for the narrative’s persistence was that the most sourced experts, journalists, and politicians agreed on it. News media mainly cited a few experts, primarily from the PHAS. Therefore, Swedes following media reporting were able to learn, and maybe also understand, the arguments underpinning the strategy as explained by the PHAS; but they had less access to alternatives. In addition, media supported existing public trust in government by implying that the PHAS and other Swedish agencies were more competent than counterparts in other countries, which helped to explain why they were carving an exceptional response path. Consequently, most Swedes remained unconvinced by what were scarce and marginalized counterarguments.