I don’t know how it is in Norway, but in the States sometimes these organizations like to “get out ahead” of something for fear of being blamed later.

In the US we have an average of 7 cases of EEE (Mosquito born illness) in humans per year, but if you get it it’s often fatal. This year there was an “outbreak” in MA of 7 cases. There are 36 communities which are claimed to be at “critical” risk.

The problem with this nonsense is that they close the town fields and they don’t let the kids outside before school starts or even for recess. This apparently will continue until the first hard frost hits.

It’s tragic that a few people have died. I think it’s insane to respond by effectively canceling fall outdoor sports.

Humans are just really bad at evaluating risks of extremely low probability events.

Norwegian culture is very different to US culture with this sort of thing at many levels. If a Norwegian public body declares an emergency it means there is a problem.

Some examples... There isn't really a blame culture here. People can fuck up massively and face no serious consequences. There isn't really the same aversion to risk. Sick people are told by their doctors to get some exercise and lose weight before the doctors reach for drugs. It would seem alien to an American in many ways.

Those are some of the things I love about Norway. The culture and people seem much more practical, on many levels.

As a Texan with family in Norway, I’ve often admired Norwegian culture... Everything is just so koselig, you know?

There are some downsides. The fact no one is held accountable for failure means incompetent people can waste a lot of resources and time.

I don't think it's _only_ a media fear fest. It's been scary, and still is. If dogs are dying from this seasonaly, and the media frenzy results in things beeing figured out - it's good. Early news coverage said similar incidents had occured in denmark and england.

Also. I certainly don't believe in the food theory. As a population, dogs are fed a variety of food. While individuals are often on a limited diet. Which suggest to me that it would be figured out quickly if it was a factor.

Infections with this is isolate need not be causal, it can also be secondary to some other problem, for example viral or environmental.

On the other hand there may be a newly-significant way of transmission.

> The autumn weather activates Providencia Alcalifaciens somehow, but how isn't known yet.

One way to increase a bacteria is killing all the competition and waiting to the survivors filling the new space available