Coronavirus: More doubts about government’s communications

On Tuesday the tabloid Ekstra Bladet reported that on March 1 Søren Brostrøm, the head of the Health Authority, had advised against a lockdown (DK). That was ten days before Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced widespread restrictions. “Limitations on gatherings, closing businesses and educational institutions could have significant negative social and economic effects,” wrote Brostrøm in an email to an unnamed civil servant. “[They] could increase the population’s insecurity and give an impression of a greater risk than is the case.”

This disclosure came soon after the news that immediately before Frederiksen’s announcement the Health Authority had not recommended the restrictions that the government implemented. A spokesperson for the Liberal Party, the largest opposition party, accused Frederiksen of “speaking untruthfully,” and Frederiksen maintained that the government had followed broad recommendations of the authorities. Between Brostrøm’s March 1 email and the March 11 announcement, the number of infections in Denmark rose from four to 514, and the latter figure was later adjusted to 758.

Withheld good news

On Wednesday, another story appeared that raises doubts about the government’s communication of information from the Health Authority. It appears that the government held back news of a positive development (DK) in the spread of the virus until after it had extended the lockdown. On March 20, Brostrøm sent another email, this time to his colleague Kåre Mølbak, saying that the reproduction rate of the infection had fallen from 2.6 to 2.1. He thought that the information should be announced publicly on the same day but reported that a political decision was made to withhold it until March 23. 

“The population has had a great deal of confidence in the authorities and the government,” said Martin Geertsen, the healthcare spokesperson for the Liberal Party. “One can only say that the confidence doesn’t go in the other direction. … The government and the prime minister are apparently of the opinion that there is information that the public cannot bear to hear.” After the earlier revelation, the party called for an official consultation with the government on the issue.

Mistakes will occur 

Also on Wednesday, Culture Minister Joy Mogensen acknowledged that at the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, the Ministry of Culture did not have a right to prohibit a large number of employees (DK) at the Danish Broadcasting Corporation and the TV2 news service from working. The order applied to all employees at the media organizations except for news journalists. It came on March 11, when the government announced that civil servants who did not perform essential functions should not report for work. Mogensen regretted that the announcement was expressed as an order and not a recommendation: “We have always been open to the fact that this was a completely unusual situation and that because of time pressure mistakes would occur.”

Alienating allies

As the conservative commentator Jarl Cordua wrote yesterday, Frederiksen and the Social Democratic administration have attained historically strong support from the population during the pandemic but their tendency to act independently has brought the opposition together (DK). Although they have managed to react quickly to their own mistakes and miscommunications and thus reduce the political damage, they have driven one of their supporting parties, the Social Liberals, into an alliance with the right-wing parties, particularly on the issue of reopening the borders. This makes it more obvious that it is a minority government, and the opposition will take advantage of opportunities to press its criticism of the government’s management of the pandemic.