Where is the world going now? – V.G.

Health

Assistant Director of Health Espen Rostrup Nuxstad’s dream is the same for the rest of us: a situation where the infection is on the rise and the Omigron virus is causing a very serious illness for everyone.

If this happens, we’ll see infection rates in the next few weeks – which was the highest in recent epidemics in Norway – skyrocketing. Because everyone has a more serious illness, the health care system will be under more pressure than it is today.

– This is very demanding because the winter may require many activities, says Nuxstad.

Such a situation would certainly be worse for countries with less developed health care than we have at home, but it would also pose great challenges in our part of the world.

– The Omikron variant will put countries around the world to new trials, with many older people living in densely populated areas such as Europe and those with weaker health systems, but with smaller populations than many developing countries. Nuxstad believes.

Activities

Prime Minister Jonas Kare Store told a news conference this week that vaccinating people was the most important step. Those who are not vaccinated should do so, and those who are fully vaccinated should be given the booster vaccine as soon as possible.

Nuxstad considers this vaccine absolutely vital to return to normal daily life.

But if the current vaccine does not work, we will have to wait for the vaccines to be adjusted.

– Such vaccines are available in a few months. Therefore, it is important not to spread too much of the need for Omigron variation in the coming months.

Therefore, if the vaccines do not work, other measures than are needed so far are needed. This is especially true in countries where hitherto access to vaccines has been limited to epidemics – in Africa, there may be omigrans.

Nakstad does not elaborate on which actions would be appropriate.

– The need for infection control measures should be continuously assessed in the coming days and weeks. No final decision has yet been made as to what is necessary and proportionate in two weeks.

Economy

John Ludwig Andreassen has no doubt that 2022 will be a year that will affect both the world economy and the domestic economy. He believes that everyone who invests financially should live with the risk of infection. We do not know how big the risk of infection is or how long it will last.

– We are now entering the third corona year. Andreassen believes 2023 will be the fourth corona year.

With a new mutation and billions of people not being vaccinated, he sees clear economic consequences:

People go to restaurants less. Culture suffers. The same is true of nightlife. Tourism is another obvious loss. Usually congestion activities are minimal.

Those who benefit from dangerous situations and closures are those who sell vacations in their own country and those who sell homes outside of big cities.

Statistics Norway (SSB) warn that the Omigron variant creates significant uncertainty for economic growth, which has been very good in Norway since this summer.

Statistics Norway warns of dire consequences for the Norwegian economy if measures already implemented do not work and the community needs to be shut down.

A new shutdown could cause the economy to collapse by almost 2 percent and impose NOK 60 billion real economic costs on us, showing an imaginary crisis situation.