At the same time as coronary heart disease is rising again in Norway, the controversy over the national infection control measures between the central health services is flaring up again. The Norwegian Institute of Public Health and the Norwegian Directorate of Health strongly disagree on whether it was right to close the country’s schools when the corona pandemic hit Norway in March 2020. wrong action. – A mistake – It was a mistake. It was not necessary and probably should not have been done, Aavitsland states to news. – None of the times? There were a lot of waves of infection we were through? – Yes, we have been through several waves, and it has always been a struggle, at least on our part, to keep the schools open, against various forces that have wanted to close the schools at a fairly low level of concern, says the infection control doctor. EMPTY CLASSROOM: After 12 March 2020, the pupils at Apalløkka school in Oslo started with home school, all schools were closed to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. Photo: Vegar Erstad Creating fear Aavitsland believes the school closures helped to create the impression that the coronavirus was dangerous for children. – There are very few children who have become seriously ill from the virus. In several places in the world, there has been a low threshold for closing schools. What we see now is that children down to the age of two to three wear bandages, or are to be vaccinated, says Aavitsland. – But FHI probably also agreed to close the schools on several occasions, was that wrong? – There were not many occasions we agreed that school closure was relevant. We pretty much tried to stop it wherever we could. We thought it was a wrong approach that those who had the least danger from this virus should be the ones who should suffer the most, says Aavitsland. – Who was the one who was most eager to close, then? – There were some municipalities and it was the Norwegian Directorate of Health, which was more eager to close schools as a main measure, says Preben Aavitsland. – Absolutely necessary Assistant Health Director in the Norwegian Directorate of Health, Espen Rostrup Nakstad, flatly rejects the criticism and maintains that it was absolutely necessary to close the schools to reduce the spread of infection. NECESSARY: Assistant Director of Health in the Norwegian Directorate of Health, Espen Rostrup Nakstad, believes it was absolutely necessary to close down schools when the corona pandemic hit Norway in March 2020. Photo: Gunhild Hjermundrud / Gunhild Hjermundrud – I think most people agree that if the goal was to get control of the pandemic and limit the infection quickly, then closure is an effective measure, simply because it reduces the mobility of everyone in society. And I think most people think so, says Nakstad to news. He points out that there are some who think differently and who may also have had a different goal with the measures in March 2020. – So here there are different views, quite obviously, Nakstad says to news. – But do you see that closing the schools could create an impression in the population that the coronavirus could affect children in particular? – There were many parents who took their children out of school before the closure, and there were inquiries from several municipalities who wanted to close schools. So it was probably a fear both that they did not do enough, but also of course fear of the pandemic in society at the time, says Nakstad. – Control He emphasizes that the measure helped to gain control of the infection situation by limiting the number of people who had contact with each other in March and at the beginning of April 2020. – It turned out to be very effective. And it proved to benefit us in Norway in that we in principle did not have a pandemic beyond the summer of 2020, says Espen Rostrup Nakstad.
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FHI chief physician: – A mistake to close down the schools
