Young people refuse to say who they have met – VG

The infection is increasing considerably in Drammen. A third of the 75 newly infected corona in River City this week are under the age of 19.

On Wednesday, Drammens Tidende reports that more young people will not tell the traces of infection with whom they have been to a party. This makes it difficult to detect infections.

Health Minister Bent Høie said in an interview with VG on Wednesday night that he understands that young people refuse to say who they have partied with, but they have the following message for all young people:

– It’s not a shame to be infected. And it’s safe to know who you’ve been with. It is not passed on to others. The health service treats the information you provide confidentially, he says.

– A big problem

Drammen City Chief Medical Officer John David Johannessen is concerned about the development.

– We experience it as a big problem that young people who are tested and diagnosed with corona, do not tell the truth. We call in close contacts who speak out and the stories young people tell don’t always match. They both lie and don’t tell the whole truth, says Johannessen, adding:

– The consequence is that we fail to quarantine those who go there. And then we move towards a growing lack of infection control.

43 infected people were reported Tuesday, while 32 new cases were reported in Drammen on Wednesday. The tension now is related to whether the explosion of the infection is due to more people being tested or if the British mutation virus is out of control.

– He is about to climb violently, says Johannessen to VG.

It is not dangerous to tell the truth

Health Minister Bent Høie is concerned with highlighting the difference between breaking the Infection Control Act if the police break up a party you attend and tell about participation afterwards.

While participating in a party can result in fines, you are not fined for informing healthcare professionals afterwards.

Assure young people that it is safe to tell and that there is no shame in being infected.

– We can all make mistakes and fool ourselves. Youth have lived with interventions and measures for a long time; I understand that they can get tired of that and that the temptation becomes great to do something that is not right. But if you’ve made a mistake, you can correct it again by getting tested and telling who you have close contact with, Høie says.

– Why do you think many will not say who they have been with?

– I think maybe it is related to conditions that are known to accompany infectious diseases: shame and fear that it will have consequences for someone for whom you do not want it to have consequences. And then it happens that young people do things that their parents should not know. They then need to be sure that they can inform those monitoring infections.

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Lower the test threshold

The municipal chief doctor, Johannessen, encourages parents to go out into the country and talk to their teenagers about seriousness.

This week, Drammen sent a team from the testing station to the larger high schools to lower the testing threshold.

– It has been very crowded. We also personally call all those infected and tell them how important it is to tell the truth.

Høie tells VG that he has not received comments from other municipalities and infection markers that withholding information is a problem. But he is concerned about cases that have cropped up about people hanging out on social media.

– Shame leads to better conditions for the virus.

Blaming individual groups or individuals leads to shame, he believes.

– Shame leads to better conditions for the virus to spread because people don’t get tested and don’t say so. This is something that has always been associated with infectious diseases. We saw it when TB swept away: TB meant you were “poor and stupid.” Therefore, the infection continued. The same happened with the HIV infection that was related to shame and that you yourself were responsible and the culprit of being infected. That you had done something wrong, says Høie.

– It took many years to correct the error. There are still many HIV positive people who do not dare to tell it. It says something about the force of forces. It is very dangerous for such attitudes to take hold. May have effects on public health.

Bent Høie does not believe that young people are the only ones who are not completely honest during infection-spotting work. Point out that we have strong privacy protections in Norway and that this is not all you want others to know. Rather than specifically worrying about young people, Høie feels another fear:

– I’m afraid we’ll get so bored that we don’t follow the restrictions. We are all bored now.