Tomorrow, on February 1. 2022, Denmark will cease all covid regulations and restrictions. In Norway, it’s expected that most restrictions aside from quarantine rules for people who test positively will also be removed.
Perhaps more significantly, the public health institute of Norway has also issued a suggestion to declassify covid as a “dangerous infectious disease”, which would remove the legal basis for the government to impose regulations by law altogether.
Photo: Terje Pedersen / NTB scanpix
Today, on January the 31st, the bars in Denmark were supposed to close at 22:00 pm as part of its current covid restrictions intended to reduce infection rates. However, with all restrictions ceasing to exist starting Feb. 1st just 2 hours later, an exception was made today and the restrictions lifted starting today.
Denmark is thus the first European country, to my knowledge, to fully reopen since the Omicron-FUD started back in December. Reason? Omicron is simply not considered dangerous. And the vaccines are, according to the Danish health department, showing enough protection against severe disease and taken by a large enough portion of the old population to make it an insignificant threat.
Norwegian public health institute recommending fewer restrictions
And while Norway does not seem willing to go quite as far as Denmark just yet, the input from the public health institute is that Omicron is so far showing every sign of not being sufficiently dangerous to justify severe interferences.
It has even gone further to state that the current restrictions themselves likely have had a greater negative impact on health than the infections they may have helped reduce. Its conclusion is also based on the observation that Omicron does not cause significant illness in the vast majority of people who are infected.
But most significant here is the statement by the health institute's assistant director and main public figure Espen Nakstad suggesting that Covid should no longer fall in under the category of a "dangerous infectious disease".
This is significant because it’s the classification of covid as such that gives the government the authority to impose restrictions and regulations to combat its spread. Should the health institute decide that Covid at this stage does not fit the category, as is now proposed, then it would remove the legal basis for the government to introduce new restrictions for further outbreaks.
It's important to note though, that Norway's vaccine rates are higher than the big majority of western countries with well over 99.5% of people above 75 being fully vaccinated.
Large contrasts between western countries
The contrast is then almost unbelievable to the scenes recently seen in other western counties from Canada to Austria and Australia. While Norway never had vaccine passports, let alone vaccine mandates of any kind, as well as the most known epidemiologists stating that "the pandemic was practically over for most people" back in December, it is crazy to look at what's still going on elsewhere.
And while I know the subject of the pandemic, and its related policies has been topic toxic enough to make discussing politics and religion during family dinner feel like a break, it’s certainly provided interesting observations to the neutral observer.
- How many freedoms are people willing to sacrifice at the altar of safety?
- How far are governments willing to go to keep control?
- How are these differences between countries, demographics, etc?
Leaving behind one’s own opinions for a while, the past 2 years have provided plenty of material for studies on a human choice regardless of what angle one is coming from.
The good news, judging by the data we now have in Norway and Denmark, is that everything is now looking just as one would expect it to be if we were approaching the end. With a variant that is more infectious but far less dangerous than its predecessors. Soon enough, our strong opinions on the matter won't matter as much. But still, we'll have a lot of experiences from these past 2 years to digest.
Did we pass the stress test?
Finally. Some common sense.
Well, they want us all to get covid now, since its not deadly at the moment :p
The current variant is just not as deadly, and it this point many epidemiologists agree that having natural immunity from infection is the best protection. I expect Covid is much like what we call the "common cold." In its earliest days, it killed a lot of people. Gradually, we all developed enough immunity that we blow our noses and cough a bit once a year, eat some chicken soup... and get on with our lives.
I expect that in another 3-5 years, Covid will barely be thought of as "dangerous" anymore.
It will only be in 3-5 years that we will start to discover the long term effects of these experimental gene therapies that were injected into the majority of the world population. If the current short term effects are any mark of what is to come, it won't be pretty.
I'm happy to have skated around getting any of those shots... I've had Covid twice, and the first time was pretty nasty (think the worst flu you ever had and then add food poisoning); the second time was like a "72-hour flu" and then it was over. My wife had the one-shot-and-you're-done J&J a year back because she needed to fly to Hawaii... but we're hopeful that's the *least" dangerous of the options.
I'm sure it will not be pretty. There are already some short term study result circulating that suggest you're 300% more likely to get certain cancers, and 1000%(!) more likely to develop neurological disorders.
Yes, there are a number of studies now that indicate natural immunity is better, if not superior to the shots.
No one should be forced into taking an experimental medical treatment to travel, work, or just go about their lives.
Thanks for this news, in Italy the infections are decreasing, but currently the restrictions remain. I hope that in the summer the restrictions will be completely lifted throughout the European area
What's interesting is that here in Norway, the infections are more than 20 times higher than before, but still they want to remove most restrictions because it doesnt result in more hospitalization.
Yes, you are right this is an important aspect, we are probably close to the point that we are moving from the pandemic phase to the endemic phase
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I hope to see the pandemic completely over and restrictions end. Unfortunately, who knows what problems we will deal with at that time. economic problems have increased and people have really experienced a lot of stress during the pandemic period. It is best to believe that we are very close to leaving these bad days behind. I hope it lifts restrictions in many countries. It achieves a good rate in vaccination. I've overdosed on the 3rd and I'm much more comfortable
I sure expect with the next virus introducing itself the world will take it more seriously than during the early days of covid spreading the world. Taiwan did so with COVID, as it had experience with SARS in 2003. Until the next pandemic, which is just a matter of time, I agree we can keep our strong opinions on the matter locked up in the back of our heads.
Great. Hope the rest of the world follow suit.
Sounds good, England is doing something similar.
Hope that bullshit ends soon and we can live like we used to do before the pandemic.
All that bullshit propaganda, fake statistics, constant lies, it's just too much.
The most important thing is to take care of ourselves and be careful in public places with the agglomeration of people in order to avoid a new wave of infections, although to be honest, it is time to start living our normal lives.
Finland is heading that way, but in true Nordic order - they will be last.
Australia is extending theirs....
This is great news! Now lets hope other countries follow their lead.
Ye, its pretty neat!
Happy to hear this
Here on the east of the planet, things are not yet stable:/ but its good, that Denmark is ahead of the curve. Some positive news that is.
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