Denmark becomes first EU country to lift all Covid-19 restrictions

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Denmark has lifted all Covid-19 restrictions within the country, with coronavirus no longer considered a "socially critical sickness," according to the government.

This means that an indoor mask mandate, the use of a "Covid pass" for bars, restaurants and other indoor venues, and the legal obligation to self-isolate if you test positive are all ending.

"No one can know what will happen next December. But we promised the citizens of Denmark that we will only have restrictions if they are truly necessary and we'll lift them as soon as we can," Danish Health Minister Magnus Heunicke told CNN on Monday. "That's what's happening right now."

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Denmark becomes first EU country to lift all Covid-19 restrictions

49 minutes ago, Daisy4RN said:

Anyway, I am glad your Country is moving forward and I hope that the US will do the same soon as too many people, including children, are being significantly hurt/damaged in the process. 

So am I. I do worry (a bit) that it could possibly be one or two weeks premature. Time will tell. As of Thursday some 87%-88% of all aged 65 and older had received their third booster shot (for over 18s it’s ~51%). Before Wednesday next week, the numbers ought to be several percentage points higher. We have reasonably homogeneous vaccine uptake around the country (+/- 5%) and very high coverage in the older (60+) more vulnerable population (92- 95.5% depending on the exact age group).

For the whole year of 2021, 80% of all our country’s hospitalized Covid positive patients, were hospitalized primarily for Covid. That number dropped to 63% in the first three weeks of 2022. It’s continuing on a downward trend. (The official numbers released always includes all hospitalized patients with a Covid diagnosis, but during the weekly press briefing the public health authorities share more detailed data, as well as publishing it on their sites).

I agree that children have in many cases been negatively affected by the pandemic. I realize that some find this controversial, but I am actually glad that we never closed schools for our younger kids. (For some periods of the pandemic we’ve had distance learning for older teenagers and university students, but not for those younger). Closing schools for prolonged periods of time comes with its own set of problems and risks and can be quite detrimental to many children. 

You mention that you hope that the US will follow soon. What kind of restrictions do you actually have in place at the moment? (Nationally or on a state level). 

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Specializes in Public Health, TB.

Schools in my area have periodically gone to remote learning when too many teachers are out with infections. I hardly call that a lock-down. And last Spring, local teachers were quite vocal that they should be prioritized for vaccines ahead of front-line workers so they could return to teaching. And yet, even when they got vaccines they refused to return to in-person teaching. 

Thank you macawake, TMB, and Muno for pointing out some of the flaws in the paper. I found it hard to follow and didn't understand their criteria for which papers were used for their meta-analysis. It is clearer now. 

What I do know is our state, which had significant restrictions in the past and continues to have mask mandates,  has a much lower death rate that a neighboring state which had little if any restrictions. They also depend on hospitals in our state to accommodate for covid patients when they max out.  I am not saying patients should be turned away, but it seems unfair for those of us who are vaccinated and masked should have procedures delayed because of demands for FREEDOM!

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3 hours ago, Daisy4RN said:

I have read the study also, call it what you will but we need to start somewhere and a working study does not mean disqualification). 

If you really think that TMB was merely asking a question I would urge you to read the post in context, and also put the Hx in context. Both Muno and TMB have quite a Hx of argumentative snarky comments (which I am sure you are aware). Not just a “react and respond” let’s have a conversation response (which I would have zero problem with). 

Anyway, I am glad your Country is moving forward and I hope that the US will do the same soon as too many people, including children, are being significantly hurt/damaged in the process. 

Yeah, I was merely asking a question. Why does it trouble you to discuss the things and ideas that you bring to the threads?

Do you think that maybe you are being a bit snarky while complaining that I am snarky?

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Specializes in Travel, Home Health, Med-Surg.
55 minutes ago, toomuchbaloney said:

Yeah, I was merely asking a question. Why does it trouble you to discuss the things and ideas that you bring to the threads?

I highly doubt it based on your history. And no it doesn’t trouble me in the least to discuss issues with people who I feel truly have an open mind and want to discuss it in that manner. My experience with you tells me that is not the way you roll with those who don’t agree with you. 
 

57 minutes ago, toomuchbaloney said:

Do you think that maybe you are being a bit snarky while complaining that I am snarky?

No! Again the Hx and you know what I mean so stop playing the victim.

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On 2/4/2022 at 6:49 PM, Daisy4RN said:

Looks like Norway and Sweden are right behind also. 
Maybe they have figured out that some of these interventions are causing more harm than good. 

https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/health-news-florida/2022-02-02/a-johns-hopkins-study-says-ill-founded-lockdowns-did-little-to-limit-covid-deaths

That's an interesting take away.
I was thinking they must have had good mitigation strategies.
How does their mitigation compare to ours?

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36 minutes ago, Daisy4RN said:

I highly doubt it based on your history. And no it doesn’t trouble me in the least to discuss issues with people who I feel truly have an open mind and want to discuss it in that manner. My experience with you tells me that is not the way you roll with those who don’t agree with you. 
 

No! Again the Hx and you know what I mean so stop playing the victim.

How about if we talk about the topic rather than the animus you have for me? 

Where are there lock downs in the USA, is your community in lockdown?  Can you think of any reason that the meta-analysis you offered up wouldn't be a good foundation for public health policy?

 

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Specializes in Critical Care.
On 2/5/2022 at 12:37 PM, Daisy4RN said:

As usual I see you (and your friend) feel the need to comment on my posts and think you know me and what I understand or don’t understand!

Whatever you may think about the study, whether flawed or not, it should be obvious to any thinking person that at this point it is getting ridiculous and lockdowns need to stop for the well being of our society, just like that of the society OP posted about.  One could say that economists shouldn’t have to do such a study and that the Industrial Health complex should have done, just sayin

The closest we've had to a "lockdown" in the US was at the very beginning in New York, and like everywhere that has gone to the extreme step of utilizing lockdowns it was because things had gotten so bad that parks were being turned into big open pits to dump all the bodies into.  

If by "lockdowns" you're referring to various mitigation measures to reduce the spread of Covid then field of Public Health and Epidemiology has actually done the studies, literally hundreds of them.  

The "study" you referenced initially presents itself as a meta-analysis, but excludes hundreds of peer reviewed studies by epidimiologists because they didn't support their intended conclusions, whittling these down to 34, half of which were not peer reviewed and all but one were by economists with similar goals to theirs in terms of promoting misinformation.

I realize many of the responses to this sort of intentional misninformation seems snarky, but it's hard to come with other ways to respond to the premise that Covid isn't actually transmissible, or that it really isn't capable of killing all that many people.  Snarkiness is the inevitable result of exasperation.

Well done snarkiness in responding to the "study": https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2022/02/06/did-so-called-johns-hopkins-study-really-show-lockdowns-were-ineffective-against-covid-19/?sh=4b1ba0de1225

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UK is hot on their heels.

About time. 

 

 

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Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).
On 2/4/2022 at 3:49 PM, Daisy4RN said:

Looks like Norway and Sweden are right behind also. 
Maybe they have figured out that some of these interventions are causing more harm than good. 

https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/health-news-florida/2022-02-02/a-johns-hopkins-study-says-ill-founded-lockdowns-did-little-to-limit-covid-deaths

No what happened was that people wore masks, social distanced and got vaccinated without mandates and knocked Covid-19 down for the count.

Hppy

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14 minutes ago, hppygr8ful said:

No what happened was that people wore masks, social distanced and got vaccinated without mandates and knocked Covid-19 down for the count.

Hppy

While that may be true IMO it would be prudent to go one step (or more) further and ask ourselves why that is the case. The study was an instrument to get people to think, a working paper is just that, a work in progress. Our society has become so polarized that no one is even listening to and contemplating what was said/ other points of view (or worse questioning one’s nursing ,or other, capabilities) So, why (if true) did people in other societies listen when some people here in the US haven’t? I have my opinions. 

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35 minutes ago, Daisy4RN said:

While that may be true IMO it would be prudent to go one step (or more) further and ask ourselves why that is the case. The study was an instrument to get people to think, a working paper is just that, a work in progress. Our society has become so polarized that no one is even listening to and contemplating what was said/ other points of view (or worse questioning one’s nursing ,or other, capabilities) So, why (if true) did people in other societies listen when some people here in the US haven’t? I have my opinions. 

Are you now implying that the behavior of citizens in those countries was influenced by a deeply flawed paper before it was even published? 

By now you must be aware that SOME people in the USA didn't listen to or follow public health mitigation recommendations because of the politicization of mitigation by the former president.  I'm sure that you remember Trump saying that masks were optional while engaging in rhetoric like "free Michigan". He also encouraged distrust of government institutions while serving as a large source of misinformation about covid in 2020. Time and again, review of the data reflected a link between conservative political ideology and opposition to masking. Here's an example of one published analysis. 

I'd be interested to hear your opinion as to why so many conservatives were non-compliant with covid mitigation in 2020 and 2021. 

 

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Specializes in Critical Care.
2 hours ago, Daisy4RN said:

While that may be true IMO it would be prudent to go one step (or more) further and ask ourselves why that is the case. The study was an instrument to get people to think, a working paper is just that, a work in progress. Our society has become so polarized that no one is even listening to and contemplating what was said/ other points of view (or worse questioning one’s nursing ,or other, capabilities) So, why (if true) did people in other societies listen when some people here in the US haven’t? I have my opinions. 

Why did sociopathy become a political position?  I'm also curious.  I've offered my best guess as to why that is.  I'm guess you aren't willing to offer your own views on that topic is because actually stating that absurd reasoning out loud is incredibly embarrassing, but I encourage you to give it a try.

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