Has Denmark's coronavirus lockdown been too successful?
Ritzau/The Local - [email protected]
Published: 7 Apr, 2020 CET.
Updated: Tue 7 Apr 2020 08:41 CET
Denmark's success in flattening the curve of the coronavirus pandemic in the country could cause problems later on, by forcing the country to keep economically and socially debilitating measures in place for longer, experts in Denmark have warned.
"The fewer people who get infected, the longer it takes before the epidemic has infected enough people that there is broad immunity in the population," Professor Allan Randrup Thomsen at the University of Copenhagen told Jyllands-Posten newspaper.
On Monday night, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said her government was not seeking to build herd immunity in the Danish population and would instead try to suppress the pandemic until a vaccine is developed.
But Jan Pravsgaard Christensen, professor of virus and immunology at the University of Copenhagen, told the Berlingske newspaper that in absence of a vaccine, building herd immunity was the only realistic strategy.
"Since we do not have a vaccine or medical treatment for Covid-19, the only solution is to build immunity," he said.
This is why he believes that the decision to reopen schools was a good thing, as it will allow the infection rate to rise slightly.
Professor Søren Riis Paludan told the Berlingske newspaper that if Denmark had been seeking to build herd immunity, it would have been better to have more people infected by this point.
But Lars Østergaard, senior consultant at the Department of Infectious Medicine at Aarhus University Hospital, told Jyllands-Posten that by flattening the curve, Denmark will have at least pushed many infections out to a time when more will hopefully be known about how best to treat the illness.
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"The fewer people who get infected, the longer it takes before the epidemic has infected enough people that there is broad immunity in the population," Professor Allan Randrup Thomsen at the University of Copenhagen told Jyllands-Posten newspaper.
On Monday night, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said her government was not seeking to build herd immunity in the Danish population and would instead try to suppress the pandemic until a vaccine is developed.
But Jan Pravsgaard Christensen, professor of virus and immunology at the University of Copenhagen, told the Berlingske newspaper that in absence of a vaccine, building herd immunity was the only realistic strategy.
"Since we do not have a vaccine or medical treatment for Covid-19, the only solution is to build immunity," he said.
This is why he believes that the decision to reopen schools was a good thing, as it will allow the infection rate to rise slightly.
Professor Søren Riis Paludan told the Berlingske newspaper that if Denmark had been seeking to build herd immunity, it would have been better to have more people infected by this point.
But Lars Østergaard, senior consultant at the Department of Infectious Medicine at Aarhus University Hospital, told Jyllands-Posten that by flattening the curve, Denmark will have at least pushed many infections out to a time when more will hopefully be known about how best to treat the illness.
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