Thread by @kakape

Earlier this year I was watching Denmark for signs of how the Alpha variant would behave. That was partly because their amazing sequencing effort gave such a clear view of what was happening.
Now I’m watching Denmark again, but for a different reason.

Yesterday, Denmark abandoned the last corona restrictions. With more than 95% of the over-60s vaccinated, the country hopes to be able to treat #covid19 more like the flu going forward. It’s an experiment and we will see how it plays out.

I will be watching it closely because Denmark will give us some clues to what “living with the virus” might look like. It could also give us important information on the speed at which immunity wanes and the frequency and seriousness of breakthrough infections.

But it’s also interesting to understand how Denmark even got to this point. And I wanted to share a few points from my research for the latest @pandemipodcast episode which is all about Denmark.
So what can we learn for Denmark?

Danish researcher @M_B_Petersen studies how different countries have reacted to the pandemic as well as public attitudes to the policies. He says that communication was key and that it worked well in Denmark.
Great thread from him here:

https://twitter.com/m_b_petersen/status/1436193837744107523

You have to be “transparent about the uncertainty that is inherent to your decisions, while at the same time giving unambiguous advice for how the public should act”, @M_B_Petersen told me. “That's a very, very delicate balance to strike.” Denmark managed that well, he says

There was a strong sense of the pandemic being a threat that had to be tackled together, he says.
“This sense that this is a collective project has been very, very important for understanding how Denmark ended where we are right now.”

For instance: Petersen’s data suggests that Danish people were just as worried as people in other countries about side effects of the vaccines. About 40% of people were worried about vaccine side effects that might not have been discovered yet.

But in Denmark these people tended to get vaccinated anyway, because they felt it was their duty to society. “That’s actually one of the biggest predictors of vaccine acceptance in Denmark, this sense of a duty”, says @M_B_Petersen.

So should other countries follow Denmark? “If you have a lower coverage in the elderly, you should not try to do what Denmark is trying right now.”, @LoneSimonsen2 told me. “We’re simply banking on this full coverage of the people at high risk.”

@LoneSimonsen2 If you want to hear more (and speak German), latest episode of @pandemiapodcast is here:
viertausendhertz.de/pan29/