At the back of the queue – Speech

The Stoltenberg committee has presented a report on global health in which they sound the alarm about Norway’s lack of pandemic preparedness: A recent Lancet report estimates a 23 percent probability that we will have a new pandemic as serious as covid-19 within the next ten years. Nevertheless, Health Minister Jan Christian Vestre tells news.no that he is optimistic and believes we are better equipped now than when the corona pandemic hit. But this is wrong. Because the truth is that we risk being left without our most important defense – vaccines. I don’t know how many people remember, but the fact that we got quick access to vaccines during the covid pandemic was more luck than strategy. When the pandemic was at its worst, and the fight for vaccines was great, Norway had no agreement that would guarantee us vaccines. Instead, it was an active and supportive Swede, and a subsequent tweet from Ursula von der Leyen, who came to our rescue, and ensured that we were still included in the EU procurement scheme. It was by no means a foregone conclusion. The best thing Norway can do to ensure that we get access to necessary vaccines in future crises is to become a member of the EU’s health union, which, among other things, coordinates vaccine distribution. The government has understood this and has now been working for over a year for us to gain membership. But the negotiations drag on and we are a long way from reaching the finish line. An important reason for this delay is that Norway does not fulfill its obligations under the EEA Agreement. Norway has a significant backlog of various EEA regulations that should have been introduced into Norwegian law a long time ago. There are several unpopular cases on this list. The oldest backlog is the regulations for genetically modified food (GMO) and feed, which should have been introduced over 20 years ago. The government tries to blame EFTA neighbor Iceland for the fact that the process is still not on target, but the truth is that GMO-conservative Norway will in no way want this regulation because we will then get dozens of GMO products (feed for livestock) to the country . Then Norway can no longer boast of its (failed) image as one of the world’s last GMO-free countries and close the border to goods that provide (economically favorable) competition on the Norwegian market. The result is symbolic politics that stands in the way of our own security. The government should take responsibility and clean up this bureaucratic mess, so that Norway can become part of the EU’s health community. Because the consequences can be serious: If a new pandemic strikes before we reach the end of the negotiations on the EU’s health union, we risk ending up at the back of the vaccine queue, in line with countries in the global South. Then we will sit there in home isolation while our vaccinated European neighbors have resumed everyday life. We will have to live with tens of thousands of Norwegian lives and billions of Norwegian kroner being needlessly lost. We will have even greater pressure on the health service than we experienced during the covid pandemic. And even more lost childhood and social exclusion. In return, you can feel absolutely certain that the salmon on your plate has not eaten GMO feed! The Norwegian people deserve better than symbolic politics and false security. We need protection when the next pandemic hits, and that can be done with the stroke of a bureaucratic pen. It is urgent – the government must start cleaning up. Send us your opinion Want to write? Feel free to contact us at news Ytring with your post. The guidelines can be found here. Published 15.11.2024, at 10.57



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