Thought we were done with this – VG
Almost all adults have been vaccinated. But again, politicians need to decide how many we should have on Christmas visits.
This is a comment. The commentary expresses the writer’s position
Now, in the run-up to Christmas, many were looking forward to a pleasant meeting with their job or group of friends. The country has only been reopened for two months. At my workplace, we gathered the entire department for the first time just a few weeks ago.
Luckily we made it to the Christmas table.
Men now cuts the red-green government down on freedom and tightens in business. It should not happen after midnight. We should only have ten visiting at home. It is recommended that you do not train with more than 20. You can only be 50 at a memorial service. And we should preferably meet outdoors.
Here I live, the temperature is currently around 15 degrees below zero. It will be short meetings.
What I’m thinking now: Heck, why have I not drunk, eaten, traveled and been with people every single day in October and November!
It was the two months of freedom we were given.
But many people may laugh happily. An anxiety for closure had spread. The Norwegian Directorate of Health then also wrote in his advice to the government that «recommendation for travel across municipal boundaries has been removed».
They have thus considered very expensive measures.
I am nevertheless surprised at how strict the new measures have actually become. I honestly did not think that the state would interfere in how many we can be at Christmas and children’s birthdays again.
But maybe need this now. Christmas table and omikron can be a perfect storm. And there are probably more than enough people on Christmas Eve already.
Still: That we should get such detailed regulations in our own homes, when almost all adults have been vaccinated, I had not set for myself.
I do not even know if we managed to finish with buns, balloons and the “back to work” markings in VG.
The new government has faltered in pandemic management to this day. This is the third tightening in a week. Usually the professionals give it to weeks to see if the measures help. Now Oslo only got a couple of days.
It’s omikron, then. Professionals estimate that they have no control over about half of the omicron infection.
Then we have the condition in the health care system – like the Norwegian Directorate of Health has described in detail in his advice to the government. Probably an attempt to stop arguing about how bad it really is.
In addition, conditions in Europe also play a role. In several countries, the measures are much stricter than here, and for example in well-organized Germany, it is now said that in a few weeks’ time they will have to opt out of intensive care patients.
So the question is, have we been well enough prepared? The winter wave was announced. But testing and infection tracking were scaled down.
A big difference from Denmark, which we often see, is that Danes test many more, and spend billions on that measure.
Therefore, they have a much lower percentage who test positive, and a smaller dark figure.
Well, they have admittedly had high infection rates and many posts, but they have lately talked hopefully that the R-number is on the way down.
And perhaps both Norway and Denmark should focus on home tests.
It is expensive for a family of five to buy tests for 70 kroner each. For these tests must be used frequently.
Well, it’s also sold out.
If we had long ago issued or subsidized rapid tests that people could take as often as they wanted, not just when they had symptoms, then we might have had less intrusive action now.
Test works fine to replace quarantine. And we could test ourselves before the Christmas table, and had all the neighbors around the table. We could also have been less anxious to infect Grandma.
The other measures are here because we do not know whether people are contagious. The tests solve a key problem. Namely, lack of information.
But Norway thinks it’s too expensive to treat pictures tests on us. Or that they are too difficult to obtain.
Well they probably are and because we have not bought them for a long time.
Minister of Finance Trygve Slagsvold Vedum has come forward with his money bag again to compensate for a pressured business community.
It must cost more to close parts of Norway.
Now we have strict measures that go beyond the everyday lives of people, jobs, business and tax revenues.
It may be necessary to reach as it has gone so far. But it is not a goal to have strict measures. It keeps with them are smart.