Denmark’s greatest philosopher, Søren Kirkegaard, experienced only one epidemic in his lifetime, the cholera outbreak of 1853, which occurred after Denmark foolishly lifted the coastal quarantine that had saved the country from Europe’s miserable 19th century cholera pandemics. Yet he aptly sensed our response to indeterminate lockdowns: ‘the most painful state of being is remembering the future, particularly the one you’ll never have’.
Danes and Britons are keenly ‘remembering’ summer 2021 and are desperate for lockdown to be over. In a televised debate last week, Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Fredriksen and opposition leader Jakob Ellemann-Jensen agreed ‘in principle’ that Denmark should reopen once all its over-50s have been fully vaccinated. Britain’s lockdown-fatigued subjects might well wonder: why doesn’t Boris Johnson make a similar statement? After all, at anticipated rates Britain will have vaccinated all its over-50s within two weeks. If the cautious Scandinavians can make such a bold promise, why can’t he?
Even if the AstraZeneca jab is reinstated, the damage caused by prior misinformation is done
One reason might be that Denmark’s PM has had far more pressure from her opposition than Boris Johnson has had from his.
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