Professor on reopening: – – Like driving a car without a seatbelt
When the government partially reopened the country last week, they pointed to February 17 as a possible date for when the remaining measures could be removed.
On Monday this week, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre (Labor Party) announced that the relief can be removed already during the week.
“Danish conditions” can thus be close – also here in Norway.
– If we open society, politicians, business and everyone else who complains that children must be taken into account must be aware that an opening risks a child’s health, says professor of microbiology and infection control at USN (University of South-Eastern Norway), Jörn Klein to Dagbladet.
– Completely out of control
Worried about long-covid
The professor believes it is unjustifiable to reopen society, even though Denmark has already done so. He justifies this with one significant difference from Denmark to Norway in particular.
– The big difference is that Denmark has ten percent more fully vaccinated than Norway. The challenge in Norway is that there is poor vaccination in children under 18 years of age.
Children also get sick from covid-19, he believes.
– If we open before we have managed to vaccinate children and young people, it is the same as adults putting on seatbelts and letting the children jump around in the back seat without a seatbelt, Klein says.
– It’s just nonsense that children do not get as sick. They may not end up in the intensive care unit, but they can get what is called long-covid and end up in the hospital, he continues.
Little points to the serious consequence it can have for a child to be hospitalized for a long time.
– Do you think that it is a greater burden for the children to become ill with covid and to live with strict restrictions and measures?
– I mean, it is a greater burden for children who become externally ill because they have not been given the chance to be vaccinated, yes.
Limitations also risk
Preben Aavitsland, chief physician at the National Institute of Public Health (FHI) tells Dagbladet that pandemic management is about weighing advantages against disadvantages. There will always be some uncertainty, to a greater or lesser degree, he emphasizes.
– There is a lot of research both at FHI and in other environments about late effects after corona infection. The picture is quite reassuring, says Aavitsland, before continuing:
– If we had stopped the epidemic with the omicron variant, it would have required very strong measures. These measures also have health effects. I am constantly amazed at those who never ask whether the restrictions are safe for public health. For example, is it safe for children and young people if we close schools and universities? What is the effect of this on their and quality of life?
When asked if this will be the last closure, Assistant Health Director Espen Rostrup Nakstad answers as follows:
– It depends on the development of the pandemic. As long as the immunity of the population remains and we do not get new and more serious virus variants to the country, it looks like there will be no need for new shutdowns.
– I’m concerned
Arne Søraas leads the research on long-covid at Oslo University Hospital.
He says it is too early to comment on the long-covid and omicron variant, but that figures from a nearly two-year-long pandemic suggest that people have been plagued for a long time after corona disease.
– When it comes to long-covid and child, I am worried, Søraas says to Dagbladet.
In the study Søraa’s leader, they do not have a child, nor is there any other research on child and long-covid, the researcher says.
He is worried about the consequences of “wild infection”.
– Now all the children in Norway are infected, and we just have to hope it goes well, but a lot is at stake and the government must be right and good decisions on behalf of us all, says a worried Søraas.
Corona is dying out
Disagree on vaccination
Dagbladet has previously written about Danish Henrik Nielsen, chief physician and professor at Aalborg University, who claimed that it was wrong for Denmark to vaccinate children up to the age of five. He justifies this with the fact that children who are in the beginning are healthy, very rarely get very sick from corona. In addition, omicron is milder.
Klein, on the other hand, disagrees that children under the age of twelve should not be vaccinated.
– Unlike many other countries, we have little knowledge about long-covid. Children who receive it are then at risk of receiving errors or no treatment, says Klein.
Since November 2021, Denmark has vaccinated children up to the age of five. In Norway, only children over the age of twelve are vaccinated.
Dagbladet asks the Norwegian Directorate of Health, by Espen Rostrup Nakstad, if they think the last restrictions should be removed soon.
– We give the government continuous advice on further action levels, Nakstad answers.