Denmark ends pandemic

A tale of two countries New Zealand and Denmark

Gradually reopen borders to citizens, workers and international travellers

Thousands of New Zealanders remain stranded abroad

Full reopening to non-citizens in October.

Denmark

Put an end to all coronavirus-related laws.

Danish government

Virus, no longer deemed a critical threat to society

No longer a legal obligation to self-isolate if positive

BA.2 omicron now dominates infections in Denmark

Tyra Grove Krause, director of infection preparedness, (infectious diseases agency SSI)

There was nothing for it but to let omicron run through the population

With omicron, it is impossible to stop the spread of infection, even with severe restrictions

Natural immunity and vaccinations,

send cases down by middle of February

As far as community health is concerned,

Covid is now on a par with the common cold.

Michael Bang Petersen, professor political science and government advisor

Throughout the pandemic, our data shows that the key worry of Danes is not their own health, but overwhelmed hospitals

Epidemiology in Denmark has not been politicised.

Social consensus and trust in government have been Denmark’s hallmarks.

If you have a strategy based on trust and solidarity, then you can actually open up with a relatively broad agreement,

where the vulnerable and the elderly are accepting of the risks

taking on a personal responsibility,

allow younger groups to live life as normal again.

a trade-off based on data

You could say that a lot of young people have been showing solidarity with the elderly throughout the pandemic,

and now the elderly are showing some solidarity with the younger generations

Søren Brostrøm, Danish Health Authority

I’m keeping my sights on the seriously ill,

and looking at figures for inpatients in intensive care units

which, by the way, have just kept falling and falling and are now incredibly low

We have sky-high immunity in the population,

partly due to our large vaccine acceptance, but also from the wide spread of omicron

This also means that we will start to see the back end of this

Prof Lone Simonsen, epidemiologist, Roskilde University

I think that this is the last sort of lockdown-crazy pandemic wave

Having gone through two, three, four pandemic waves,

which is normal for recent historical pandemics,

I imagine Covid control will soon be similar to that of seasonal flu

Dear John,

One of the factors you might not fully appreciate from outside the states is how really poor our “health care system” (or lack thereof) in United States is.

We are well known for some fantastic institutions, but only the very well off and very well insured are sure of good care.

Many people have insufficient or no health insurance. Many of our hospitals are run like businesses, by cutting staff and costs with no consideration for quality of patient care.

Many people with comorbidities don’t get them controlled because they can’t afford the doctor visit, or the tests, or the time off work, or the actual medications.

I’m sure you’ll agree that a covid patient with controlled hypertension or diabetes will have better chances of a good outcome than a patient with uncontrolled comorbidities.

Our unfortunate political priorities, I believe, created many bad outcomes.

RN, MA

DMN

My family knows a lot of people who've died from Covid. A lot.

At least 12 people. Varying ages from 30-70's and the one thing they all had in common was either/and obesity and high blood pressure.

The US is incredibly unhealthy, particularly in the South and in poorer areas.

It seems almost no one is mentioning this as not only a pandemic but an epidemic of very, very bad health. You can go into a Walmart or Target in east texas and I am not exaggerating as much as 75% of the people you see are obese.

Not thin. Not normal.

Not overweight.

Obese.

A LITERATURE REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTS OF LOCKDOWNS ON COVID-19 MORTALITY