Morning Briefing – Monday, August 26

The Copenhagen Post’s daily digest of what the Danish press is reporting

Aug 26, 2013

Court to deliberate forced vaccinations
A judge will decide this week whether health authorities can vaccinate a child against its parents’ will. The case came about after a now three-week-old girl was given a vaccination against hepatitis B by delivery room personnel. The parents had requested that the vaccination not be given. The mother, Vinita Brødholdt, is allergic to vaccinations, and she feared her daughter would be harmed by the shot. After the injection was given, the girl’s parents said she suffered seizures. Vinita Brødholdt carries, but is not infected with, hepatitis B, and doctors are concerned that her daughter may be infected. Council health officials were set to continue the course of vaccinations, which involves an additional three injections, but a judge said the council must wait until a court can rule on the matter. – TV2 News

Private businesses the cure for health service’s ills, councils say
Regional councils are increasingly approving requests by private firms to build or operate health facilities. Proponents of these so-called public-private partnerships say they make it possible to expand the health service at a time when the public sector cannot foot the bill. Regional councils, which are responsible for managing healthcare, also argue that it is a form of economic growth and promotes innovation in the health service. Criticism of the practice mostly concentrates on plans to allow privately-run companies to provide health services. In one such deal, Falck Healthcare will set up clinics in rural areas where there is a shortage of doctors. Opponents fear that private companies will be less transparent than the public sector. – Berlingske

Financial firewalls to keep banks from cracking
The business and economy minister has unveiled another proposal to prevent potentially catastrophic bank failures. Henrik Sass Larsen (Socialdemokraterne) is calling for the establishment of “firewalls” between departments of the country’s six banks officially identified as “systematically important financially institutions” – better known as “too big to fail”. The measure, which Larsen did not describe in detail, would prevent losses in one part of a bank’s operations from causing the entire company to crack. Larsen said financial firewalls were an alternative to splitting up major financial institutions, as his party proposed in 2008 but now says it rejects. – Berlingske Business

Farmers not as green as previously thought
Claims by the agricultural industry that it reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 23 percent between 1990 and 2010 have been called into doubt. Figures from Energistyrelsen, the national energy regulator, found that after emissions were calculated based on new UN guidelines that take into account the effect on climate change of different types of gas, farmers can only claim to have reduced emissions by 14 percent. Gases like methane, which is produced in large amounts on farms, are weighted more heavily than carbon dioxide in the calculations. The finding still places the nation’s farmers better than those in most other countries, agricultural groups point out. According to climate policy think-tank Concito, the reduction was below average for all economic sectors. It predicted that any new legislation to curb emissions would be targeted at agriculture. – Information

Lucrative path increasingly less travelled
Continuing education is the path to higher wages, but few skilled workers are taking it. A study by AE, a left-leaning think tank, followed 6,000 skilled workers starting in 2002 and found that eight years later, those who had received further training during the period were earning 55,000 kroner more annually than those who did not receive training. Labour market experts said the results jibed with the findings of similar foreign studies. Despite the financial benefit, the number of skilled workers signing up for job training has declined by a third since 2001. Part of the reason for the fall could be that rising wages and plentiful overtime during the boom that proceeded the Great Recession convinced people that extra training was unnecessary. – Politiken