The Covid-19 pandemic in Denmark: Big lessons from a small country

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cytogfr.2020.05.005Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Denmark has effectively controlled the spread of SARS-CoV-2 with a fast and strict lockdown response.

  • Danish society and industry slowly began to re-open in mid-April.

  • A rapid response, trust in government and social heritage all contributed to the effective management of Covid-19.

Abstract

Denmark, a Scandinavian country of 5.8 million people has weathered the Covid-19 crisis with a relatively low rate of infection and death. Denmark has also become one of the first European countries to partially re-open its society. We offer the perspective that the combination of rapid response from the government, trust and a high level of confidence in government by Danish citizens, and the importance of social heritage contributed to the effective management of the coronavirus crisis.

Keywords

Denmark;
Covid-19
SARS-CoV-2
Coronavirus

Cited by (0)

David Olagnier, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at Aarhus University (Denmark). He earned his doctorate in Immunology and Infectious Diseases from Toulouse University (France) and completed a first post-doctoral training at the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute of Florida (USA) in the Hiscott laboratory. Prior to joining Aarhus University, he was a postdoctoral research associate at the Lady Davis Institute, McGill University (Canada) in the Lin laboratory. His work has focused on the innate immune responses to DNA and RNA virus infection with a special interest on emerging viruses such as Dengue, Zika and SARS-coronavirus. He has also investigated the use of DNA and RNA oncolytic viruses as novel experimental cancer therapeutics. His current research aims at investigating the impact of the antioxidant transcription factor Nrf2 on the link between metabolic reprogramming and innate antiviral response in cancer and virus infections.

Trine H. Mogensen, M.D. Ph.D D.M.Sc., obtained her Medical degree from Aarhus University (AU) in 2002, a PhD degree in 2003, and a Doctor of Medical Sciences degree (DMSc) in 2009. International training includes studies in Biochemistry and in Medicine in Paris, Descartes University and Necker Medical Faculty, Research fellow in the laboratory of Professor Bryan Williams at the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, and a Diploma from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In 2014, she obtained her certificate as specialist doctor in infectious diseases. She became a professor in Infection Immunology at Department of Biomedicine, AU in 2017. Her current affiliations include Dept. of Biomedicine (AU) and Dept. of Infectious Diseases, Aarhus University Hospital, where she directs her research group and treats patients, respectively. Her clinical work and research focus on the genetic and immunological basis of primary immunodeficiencies and severe infectious diseases in humans, most notably viral infections in the central nervous system. Through a translational approach combining whole exome sequencing of patient samples with functional studies in molecular immunology and virology, her group aims at delineating the pathogenesis of infectious diseases, including herpes simplex encephalitis, recurrent HSV-2 meningitis, and VZV encephalitis with the ultimate goal to improve diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of these viral infections in the brain.

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