I don't like living in England....

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Vorpal
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Re: I don't like living in England....

Post by Vorpal »

In syklist's defence, I have not generally seen variants referred to correctly in Norway, nor any publicity about the the correct naming.

I have certainly never seen the It should be referred to as the B.1.1.7 variant, referred to anything other than the 'British' variant (translated, of course), even by government health authorities in Norway.

That said, at the the early cases recorded here were traced to the people of origin & definitely came into Norway from the UK, even if a similar home-grown variant was found in Norway in September or October.

So, maybe take it up with the Norwegian government & press :lol:
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Ben@Forest
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Re: I don't like living in England....

Post by Ben@Forest »

Vorpal wrote: 7 Apr 2021, 1:55pm I have certainly never seen the It should be referred to as the B.1.1.7 variant, referred to anything other than the 'British' variant (translated, of course), even by government health authorities in Norway.

That said, at the the early cases recorded here were traced to the people of origin & definitely came into Norway from the UK, even if a similar home-grown variant was found in Norway in September or October.

So, maybe take it up with the Norwegian government & press :lol:
Really?

According to the first paragraph of the Wikipedia page on Covid in Norway:

On 26 February 2020, the virus was confirmed to have spread to Norway. The number of cases increased rapidly during the month of March, thereby necessitating a number of safety measures aiming to achieve physical distancing to be introduced on 12 March. The first death attributed to COVID-19 was documented on the same day. Most confirmed cases that were traced to outside Norway were Norwegian tourists returning from Austria and Italy.

The English/British/B.1.1.7 variant wasn't identified at all until December 2020.
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syklist
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Re: I don't like living in England....

Post by syklist »

Ben@Forest wrote: 7 Apr 2021, 10:16am
syklist wrote: 7 Apr 2021, 9:01am
francovendee wrote: 3 Apr 2021, 10:47am The English variant of C19 now accounts for over 89% of cases in the Vendee, hence the rapid rise in the numbers.
It accounts for over 90% of infections in the Greater Oslo area. Infection rates are going down at the moment after another round of lockdowns.

One British export we could have done without.
It should be referred to as the B.1.1.7 variant, not “U.K. variant”.
Yes, I am aware of that, it was another poster who used the phrase "English variant of C19". I merely replied to their comment.

As Vorpal has pointed out here they call it the "engelsk" or occasionally "britisk" variant. I have seen occasional newspaper articles where the "correct" name is give as well as "engelsk".

Track and trace here in Norway has been the responsibility of local councils as they run local doctors surgeries. Certainly here in our neck of the woods it is very rare that they do not find out where and how a person was infected. So it is easy to find the provenance of a given non-Norwegian Covid-19 strain. Irrespective as to what you choose to call it.

My comment "One British export we could have done without" was actually ironic, that post 31/12/2020 British exporters seem to be have more problems trying to serve customers in the EU and EEA.

The irony being that (unfortunately) this does not seem to apply to the export of Covid-19 variants first found in the UK.
Last edited by syklist on 7 Apr 2021, 2:40pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: I don't like living in England....

Post by syklist »

Ben@Forest wrote: 7 Apr 2021, 2:21pm
Vorpal wrote: 7 Apr 2021, 1:55pm I have certainly never seen the It should be referred to as the B.1.1.7 variant, referred to anything other than the 'British' variant (translated, of course), even by government health authorities in Norway.

That said, at the the early cases recorded here were traced to the people of origin & definitely came into Norway from the UK, even if a similar home-grown variant was found in Norway in September or October.

So, maybe take it up with the Norwegian government & press :lol:
Really?

According to the first paragraph of the Wikipedia page on Covid in Norway:

On 26 February 2020, the virus was confirmed to have spread to Norway. The number of cases increased rapidly during the month of March, thereby necessitating a number of safety measures aiming to achieve physical distancing to be introduced on 12 March. The first death attributed to COVID-19 was documented on the same day. Most confirmed cases that were traced to outside Norway were Norwegian tourists returning from Austria and Italy.

The English/British/B.1.1.7 variant wasn't identified at all until December 2020.
Vorpal is discussing the B.1.1.7 variant in that post which was discovered in Norway in early 2021(? I think) NOT the first wave of infection in Feb/March 2020. That was indeed traced back to Norwegian tourists returning from the "Vinterferie" (winter holiday) in Austria and Italy.
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Re: I don't like living in England....

Post by Jdsk »

syklist wrote: 7 Apr 2021, 2:37pm
Ben@Forest wrote: 7 Apr 2021, 2:21pm
Vorpal wrote: 7 Apr 2021, 1:55pm I have certainly never seen the It should be referred to as the B.1.1.7 variant, referred to anything other than the 'British' variant (translated, of course), even by government health authorities in Norway.

That said, at the the early cases recorded here were traced to the people of origin & definitely came into Norway from the UK, even if a similar home-grown variant was found in Norway in September or October.

So, maybe take it up with the Norwegian government & press :lol:
Really?

According to the first paragraph of the Wikipedia page on Covid in Norway:

On 26 February 2020, the virus was confirmed to have spread to Norway. The number of cases increased rapidly during the month of March, thereby necessitating a number of safety measures aiming to achieve physical distancing to be introduced on 12 March. The first death attributed to COVID-19 was documented on the same day. Most confirmed cases that were traced to outside Norway were Norwegian tourists returning from Austria and Italy.

The English/British/B.1.1.7 variant wasn't identified at all until December 2020.
Vorpal is discussing the B.1.1.7 variant in that post which was discovered in Norway in early 2021(? I think) NOT the first wave of infection in Feb/March 2020. That was indeed traced back to Norwegian tourists returning from the "Vinterferie" (winter holiday) in Austria and Italy.
That's how I read it.

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Re: I don't like living in England....

Post by Vorpal »

syklist wrote: 7 Apr 2021, 2:37pm Vorpal is discussing the B.1.1.7 variant in that post which was discovered in Norway in early 2021(? I think) NOT the first wave of infection in Feb/March 2020. That was indeed traced back to Norwegian tourists returning from the "Vinterferie" (winter holiday) in Austria and Italy.
Yes, I meant the B.1.1.7 variant. I saw a newspaper article that it was first found in Norway in mid December amongst unrelated British/Norwegian families who came for Christmas, but it was detected whilst they were still in quarantine. It was, however imported multiple times over the following weeks, initially from the UK, but then also Sweden & Denmark.

That hasn't kept them from calling it the British mutation, though :lol:
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Re: I don't like living in England....

Post by Ben@Forest »

Vorpal wrote: 7 Apr 2021, 3:40pm
syklist wrote: 7 Apr 2021, 2:37pm Vorpal is discussing the B.1.1.7 variant in that post which was discovered in Norway in early 2021(? I think) NOT the first wave of infection in Feb/March 2020. That was indeed traced back to Norwegian tourists returning from the "Vinterferie" (winter holiday) in Austria and Italy.
Yes, I meant the B.1.1.7 variant. I saw a newspaper article that it was first found in Norway in mid December amongst unrelated British/Norwegian families who came for Christmas, but it was detected whilst they were still in quarantine. It was, however imported multiple times over the following weeks, initially from the UK, but then also Sweden & Denmark.

That hasn't kept them from calling it the British mutation, though :lol:
Apologies - I thought you meant from the start of the whole shebang. I remember Italy was the first European country which reported clusters of C-19 and was one of the first to implement lockdowns.
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Re: I don't like living in England....

Post by Vorpal »

Ben@Forest wrote: 7 Apr 2021, 6:14pm

Apologies - I thought you meant from the start of the whole shebang. I remember Italy was the first European country which reported clusters of C-19 and was one of the first to implement lockdowns.
That's ok. Norway was an early adopter :roll:

Norwegians like to travel for winter half term, and generally take half term in February. So, yes, initial cases came from people who travelled to Austria and Italy & returned with the virus. It was in community transmission by the time the health authorities realised.
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Re: I don't like living in England....

Post by syklist »

Vorpal wrote: 8 Apr 2021, 10:57am
Ben@Forest wrote: 7 Apr 2021, 6:14pm

Apologies - I thought you meant from the start of the whole shebang. I remember Italy was the first European country which reported clusters of C-19 and was one of the first to implement lockdowns.
That's ok. Norway was an early adopter :roll:

Norwegians like to travel for winter half term, and generally take half term in February. So, yes, initial cases came from people who travelled to Austria and Italy & returned with the virus. It was in community transmission by the time the health authorities realised.
I seem to remember reading that half of the 500 or so initial cases in Norway could basically be traced back to one bar in a valley in Austria. "Anyone for a spot of Après-ski... cough cough?".

That the "early adopters" were fit alpine ski enthusiasts in the age range 35-45 and that Norway locked down effectively in mid March are the main reasons why the death toll from the first wave of Covid-19 was relatively small and the outbreak relatively well contained. We are now heading towards 700 deaths in total since the start of the pandemic. If Norway had suffered similar mortality rates to the UK we would now have had over 9500 Covid-19 deaths.
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Re: I don't like living in England....

Post by mjr »

The nationalist misnaming will become problematic if B1.1.7 with E484K or the A.23.1 with E484K variants escape from England.

Are we world-beating in covid variant incubation?
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Re: I don't like living in England....

Post by mjr »

al_yrpal wrote: 28 Mar 2021, 9:17am No Oldjohn, just another series of untrue assertions from a thoroughly jaundiced view of your fellow countrymen. Why criticise our government for deciding to hang our national flag on public buildings when its common practice almost everywhere in the world?
Who is doing that? One tasteful flag on the outside of the building is totally different from spending millions on a TV set festooned with improperly flown flags, putting similar improper flags in back of shot on video calls, or berating theoretically-independent companies for insufficient flaggage. Those are the bulk of the criticism.
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Re: I don't like living in England....

Post by syklist »

mjr wrote: 8 Apr 2021, 1:22pm The nationalist misnaming will become problematic if B1.1.7 with E484K or the A.23.1 with E484K variants escape from England.

Are we world-beating in covid variant incubation?
It looks like it

I for one am sure it is as a result of the UK freeing itself from the shackles of the European overlords. :roll:

Edit : That, by the way is an example of my dry sense of humour.
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Re: I don't like living in England....

Post by Vorpal »

syklist wrote: 8 Apr 2021, 12:58pm
That the "early adopters" were fit alpine ski enthusiasts in the age range 35-45 and that Norway locked down effectively in mid March are the main reasons why the death toll from the first wave of Covid-19 was relatively small and the outbreak relatively well contained. We are now heading towards 700 deaths in total since the start of the pandemic. If Norway had suffered similar mortality rates to the UK we would now have had over 9500 Covid-19 deaths.
yes, well the 'early adopters' was tongue-in-cheek. I've been pretty happy with the Norwegian management of covid & disease control. They've been completely transparent, published the scientific bases for decisions, and prioritised vulnerable people.

The only thing I would have done differently, is how the furlough was handled. I think that some companies were rather opportunistic with the emergency funding & furlough scheme, and furloughed people that either didn't need to be furloughed, or that would have part of a downsizing in 2020, anyway. The scheme was designed to save companies money. I think instead that they should have subsidized the companies to keep people on staff. That would potentially have prevented some of the small business & hospitality closures, and also kept people employed, even if they weren't actually working.

I know that it was done partly because the bureaucratic structure was already in place, but I think it would be been better for the economy & prevented a lot of job losses to pay companies to keep people on.
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Re: I don't like living in England....

Post by Jdsk »

mjr wrote: 8 Apr 2021, 1:29pm
al_yrpal wrote: 28 Mar 2021, 9:17am No Oldjohn, just another series of untrue assertions from a thoroughly jaundiced view of your fellow countrymen. Why criticise our government for deciding to hang our national flag on public buildings when its common practice almost everywhere in the world?
Who is doing that? One tasteful flag on the outside of the building is totally different from spending millions on a TV set festooned with improperly flown flags, putting similar improper flags in back of shot on video calls, or berating theoretically-independent companies for insufficient flaggage. Those are the bulk of the criticism.
Exactly. It's the use by and pressure from those with political power that is concerning, not what individuals or individual organisations choose to do.

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Re: I don't like living in England....

Post by Psamathe »

mjr wrote: 8 Apr 2021, 1:22pm ....
Are we world-beating in covid variant incubation?
I don't think the UK is especially "good" at creating the variants. Just that we allowed such a lot of virus to run through so much of the population it just came down to numbers; 10 times the virus equates to 10 times the number of mutations meaning 10 times the number of "variants of interest". And Johnson seemed to have failed to control the virus particularly well so plenty of virus for plenty of mutations ...

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