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On 12 March 2020, Norway recorded its first demise from COVID-19.
Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, Well being Minister Bent Høie, Director of the Norwegian Institute of Public Well being Camilla Stoltenberg, and Director Basic of Well being Bjørn Guldvog have been visibly affected by the seriousness of the state of affairs once they met the press. They introduced that the nation could be going into lockdown.
Colleges and kindergartens, universities and college faculties have been closed with quick impact. Folks have been informed to go residence from work, and youngsters acquired on-line education at residence.
“I believe closing schools was the stupidest thing we did,” mentioned Oddveig Storstad, a professor at NTNU’s Division of Instructor Training.
Storstad is the nationwide coordinator for the Worldwide Civic and Citizenship Training Examine (ICCS), a global examine on decrease secondary college pupils’ data and understanding of democracy and citizenship. It focuses on participation and involvement in society and politics.
“We collected data in 2022 during the period we were emerging from the pandemic and schools had started functioning normally again. When I saw the results, I became concerned.”
Faculty refusal extra widespread
Amongst all of the taking part nations, Norway was the one the place the outcomes had declined probably the most from 2016 to 2022.
“The lockdown is not entirely to blame. But in addition to the learning loss, the closure of schools likely contributed to amplifying some negative trends,” Storstad mentioned.
Storstad factors out that many college pupils have gotten more and more unmotivated in relation to highschool and training.
“Among other things, we see that school refusal is a problem that has increased after the pandemic,” he mentioned.
In 2016, when the researchers requested Norwegian 12 months 9 pupils how lengthy they wished to pursue their training, 4.6% of the pupils responded that they didn’t intend to proceed past obligatory decrease secondary college stage. By 2022, this determine had elevated to 13.9%.
“Of course, these pupils know that discontinuing their education after Year 10 is not a realistic option—so they continue on to upper secondary school, but with much lower motivation. This is confirmed when we conduct tests. So, I don’t think we should close schools again,” mentioned Storstad.
Extra cautious about an infection after COVID-19
Linda Ernstsen’s important analysis curiosity is the correlation between bodily exercise and mind well being. She has studied how the pandemic affected the following use of antidepressants.
“We found that people who were in good physical shape before the pandemic were the ones who had the highest usage of antidepressants from pharmacies after the pandemic. That was a bit surprising, but it might be because this is a group with exercise habits that depend on being at a fitness center or training with other people,” defined Ernstsen.
Ernstsen makes use of information from the HUNT Examine (The Trøndelag Well being Examine) in her analysis. Now, 5 years later, she says that there isn’t any proof suggesting that persons are much less bodily lively than earlier than the pandemic.
Nevertheless, younger folks’s psychological well being reveals a distinct development.
“It has not returned to the previous level. Although this is probably a development that started long before the pandemic,” mentioned Ernstsen.
The earlier HUNT Examine, HUNT 4, was accomplished earlier than the pandemic began. Even then, there was a rise in depressive signs and better use of antidepressants amongst younger folks, particularly younger women. Ernstsen hopes {that a} fifth HUNT survey will quickly be carried out.
“It cannot be ruled out that the pandemic and lockdown are still having repercussions. But studies of long-term effects must span over many years. Some types of diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, take a long time to develop. There are many things we still don’t know, and we need new data. Since the infection control measures were managed very differently in different countries, it is also important to study trends in Norway,” she mentioned.
New RSV vaccine
The researcher believes that regardless of sickness and poor psychological well being, the pandemic additionally had some positives.
“I think we have become more careful—and better at both avoiding catching infectious illnesses and preventing them from spreading to other people. Several employers have started offering vaccines to their employees. We have returned to hugging each other, but now more of us are likely to cover our mouths when we cough and wash our hands when we get home,” mentioned Ernstsen.
If the pandemic made folks extra conscientious about an infection management, it had an excellent higher influence on the pharmaceutical business and the event of latest vaccines. Sven Even Borgos is a senior researcher at SINTEF’s Division of Biotechnology and Nanomedicine. He talks passionately about mRNA and the brand new expertise platform that has been established after COVID-19.
“It used to take eight to 10 years to develop a vaccine. But it only took 11 months from the SARS-CoV-2 being gene-sequenced in January 2020 to the first vaccine being administered to a human! The development of vaccines has accelerated tremendously,” he mentioned.
He’s satisfied that this expertise will assist us when a brand new pandemic strikes the world. The brand new vaccine expertise, the place small items of genetic materials—mRNA—are used as a substitute of your entire virus within the vaccine, has already led to a brand new RSV vaccine.
RSV is a typical reason behind respiratory infections in newborns and infants, and might trigger extreme sickness in aged folks and really younger kids.
Most cancers vaccines
Using mRNA is a platform expertise, which implies that the identical growth course of can be utilized to create medicines for a spread of ailments. Melanoma, prostate most cancers, abdomen most cancers and ovarian most cancers—these are only a few of the sorts of most cancers for which vaccines at the moment are being developed.
“Three areas in particular are receiving a lot of focus at the moment—cancer, with therapeutic cancer vaccines, infectious diseases, and metabolic diseases. mRNA research had been conducted for several decades before COVID-19, but it was COVID-19 that really got the ball rolling,” defined Borgos.
Nonetheless sofa potatoes
However let’s get again to folks’s on a regular basis lives: How has the pandemic and the lockdown affected most individuals’s lives? Did we take the chance to develop new and higher habits?
“During the pandemic, many people envisioned they would cycle more than before. But the figures do not show such a change as the plans would suggest,” mentioned Winnie Ma.
She research folks’s journey habits and believes that, for probably the most half, folks behave the identical means as earlier than the pandemic.
“Right after the pandemic, many people said they were worried about contracting diseases if they took public transport, or when asked about international travel. We now see that domestic travel numbers are back to normal, and international travel numbers are following suit,” mentioned Ma.
In 2021, the researchers requested folks if there was something of their lives they wished to vary.
“Many people said they wanted to spend more time outdoors. In 2023, we asked people what they were doing more or less of, and it turned out that people were not spending more time outdoors than before. So, people’s habits do not really change,” mentioned Ma.
Nevertheless, one factor that has undoubtedly modified after COVID-19 is that extra persons are working from residence. Based on the journey researcher, it has some clear benefits.
“Working from home reduces rush hour traffic for trains and buses. Society loses out when people are stuck in traffic—traffic jams cause delays for all types of transportation and make it less attractive to use buses and trains as modes of transport.”
Administration harder after COVID-19
Working from house is right here to remain, in response to chief researcher Nils Brede Moe at SINTEF Digital.
“What we have learned through the pandemic is that almost all work can be done from anywhere. The pandemic was the world’s largest training project in which we debunked a number of myths,” mentioned Moe.
He’s at the moment conducting a examine the place they’re monitoring 50 firms from around the globe.
“We see that some companies are becoming a bit more restrictive, but changing the policy does not necessarily mean that people actually come into the office. We find that when individuals and teams are allowed to decide for themselves, the majority of people choose to work from the office. Allowing people to decide for themselves is a much stronger mechanism than having the managers decide,” mentioned Moe.
Whereas persons are persevering with to work at home, they’re additionally working extra.
“The issue that has the best affect on the selection is the time it takes to commute to work. We see that one-third of the time saved by working from residence is definitely used for work.
On the identical time, managers’ jobs have grow to be tougher. How do you train administration if you find yourself not with the folks you might be presupposed to be managing?
Those that succeed are maybe those who perceive easy methods to use the time they spend collectively successfully and make coming to the workplace engaging,” prompt Moe.
Maybe the most important adjustments contain the best of issues.
“Having a good lunch is more important now than it was before,” Moe mentioned.
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COVID-19: 5 years since lockdown—what has Norway discovered? (2025, April 29)
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