Leaked mails reveal battle over Denmark's lockdown | The Local.dk:
May 29, 2020 - "Leaked emails between leading figures in Denmark's health authorities are raising questions over the extent to which Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen steam-rollered her own health experts at the time the country imposed its lockdown in mid-March.
"In an email leaked to the Politiken newspaper, Per Okkel, the top civil servant at the health ministry, told Søren Bostrøm, the head of the Danish Health Authority to suspend his sense of professional 'proportionality' as a public servant, and instead adopt a 'extreme precautionary principle' when giving political advice.
"At the same time, emails leaked to the Ekstrabladet newspaper showed how on March 20, new calculations showing that the reproduction number in Denmark was 2.1, considerably lower than the 2.6 previously estimated, were held back because they were 'not desired politically'....
The health spokesperson for the opposition Liberal party told the Politiken newspaper that the email to Bostrøm was 'totally crazy'. 'It is quite simply a huge problem if you start trying to politically manage the official advice you receive,' he said.... He said the decision to hold back publication of the better than expected reproduction number showed the issue was gaining 'scandalous dimensions'....
"In the email chain about the suppressed briefing note, Kåre Molbæk, Denmark's top epidemiologist, and Søren Brostrøm, head of the Danish Health Authority, both said they wanted to release the new number. But Brostrøm told Molbæk that this would not be possible until the next week, when Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced the lockdown extension.... 'I'm completely in agreement...' he said. 'But this is not desired politically, and my understanding is that it can be announced on Monday at the earliest'.... [Ekstrabladet] pointed out that Frederiksen had used, and exaggerated, the 2.6 figure in a speech the previous week.
"In an in-depth article, the Politiken newspaper detailed how the government's emergency law on March 12 had stripped powers from the Danish Health Authority, changing it from [a] 'regulatory authority' to an 'advisory' one. This allowed the government to ignore the authority's opinion that Covid-19 was not a sufficiently dangerous disease to permit the government to impose compulsory interventions on the public under Denmark's epidemic law.
"As late as March 15, the Danish Health Authority argued there was insufficient ground for banning public events and gatherings of ten people under the law. 'The Danish Health Authority continues to consider that covid-19 cannot be described as a generally dangerous disease, as it does not have either a usually serious course or a high mortality rate,' it wrote."
Read more: https://www.thelocal.dk/20200529/leaked-emails-show-how-denmarks-pm-steam-rollered-her-own-health-agency
May 29, 2020 - "Leaked emails between leading figures in Denmark's health authorities are raising questions over the extent to which Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen steam-rollered her own health experts at the time the country imposed its lockdown in mid-March.
"In an email leaked to the Politiken newspaper, Per Okkel, the top civil servant at the health ministry, told Søren Bostrøm, the head of the Danish Health Authority to suspend his sense of professional 'proportionality' as a public servant, and instead adopt a 'extreme precautionary principle' when giving political advice.
"At the same time, emails leaked to the Ekstrabladet newspaper showed how on March 20, new calculations showing that the reproduction number in Denmark was 2.1, considerably lower than the 2.6 previously estimated, were held back because they were 'not desired politically'....
The health spokesperson for the opposition Liberal party told the Politiken newspaper that the email to Bostrøm was 'totally crazy'. 'It is quite simply a huge problem if you start trying to politically manage the official advice you receive,' he said.... He said the decision to hold back publication of the better than expected reproduction number showed the issue was gaining 'scandalous dimensions'....
"In the email chain about the suppressed briefing note, Kåre Molbæk, Denmark's top epidemiologist, and Søren Brostrøm, head of the Danish Health Authority, both said they wanted to release the new number. But Brostrøm told Molbæk that this would not be possible until the next week, when Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced the lockdown extension.... 'I'm completely in agreement...' he said. 'But this is not desired politically, and my understanding is that it can be announced on Monday at the earliest'.... [Ekstrabladet] pointed out that Frederiksen had used, and exaggerated, the 2.6 figure in a speech the previous week.
"In an in-depth article, the Politiken newspaper detailed how the government's emergency law on March 12 had stripped powers from the Danish Health Authority, changing it from [a] 'regulatory authority' to an 'advisory' one. This allowed the government to ignore the authority's opinion that Covid-19 was not a sufficiently dangerous disease to permit the government to impose compulsory interventions on the public under Denmark's epidemic law.
"As late as March 15, the Danish Health Authority argued there was insufficient ground for banning public events and gatherings of ten people under the law. 'The Danish Health Authority continues to consider that covid-19 cannot be described as a generally dangerous disease, as it does not have either a usually serious course or a high mortality rate,' it wrote."
Read more: https://www.thelocal.dk/20200529/leaked-emails-show-how-denmarks-pm-steam-rollered-her-own-health-agency
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