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SWEDEN

Sweden threatens to ‘annex’ the ostehøvel

Sweden's official Twitter account has threatened to "annex" the ostehøvel, the cheese slicing implement that is arguably Norway's most notable innovation in the field of international cuisine.

Published: 12 June 2014 13:48 CEST
Sweden threatens to 'annex' the ostehøvel
Linus, this week's @Sweden, holding his osthyvel. Photo: Twitter/@Sweden
The Ostehøvel, or Osthyvel as it is known in Sweden, has come to symbolise breakfast in the two countries in the years since it was patented by the Norwegian inventor Thor Bjørklund back in 1925. 

 
Linus, the unemployed journalist managing @Sweden, Sweden's official Twitter account,  this week began posting pictures of himself holding the instrument on Wednesday, apparently ignorant of its Norwegian origins. 
 
 
He posted a series of jokey follow-ons, including:
 
But then Johannes Björk, a Sweden PHD student living in Barcelona, pointed out that the implement was not in fact Swedish. 
At this point,  Sweden's official Twitter account took the momentous step of threatening to "annex" the invention. 

The threat generated an immediate response from Norwegian Twitter users (well, one Norwegian Twitter user).  

Björk then stepped in and graciously asserted Norway's right to take credit for the much-loved implement. 

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NORWAY

Norway to send 200,000 AstraZeneca doses to Sweden and Iceland

Norway, which has suspended the use of AstraZeneca's Covid vaccine until further notice, will send 216,000 doses to Sweden and Iceland at their request, the Norwegian health ministry said Thursday.

Published: 22 April 2021 14:29 CEST
Norway to send 200,000 AstraZeneca doses to Sweden and Iceland
Empty vials of the AstraZeneca vaccine. (Photo by GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP)

“I’m happy that the vaccines we have in stock can be put to use even if the AstraZeneca vaccine has been paused in Norway,” Health Minister Bent Høie said in a statement.

The 216,000 doses, which are currently stored in Norwegian fridges, have to be used before their expiry dates in June and July.

Sweden will receive 200,000 shots and Iceland 16,000 under the expectation they will return the favour at some point. 

“If we do resume the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, we will get the doses back as soon as we ask,” Høie said.

Like neighbouring Denmark, Norway suspended the use of the AstraZeneca jab on March 11 in order to examine rare but potentially severe side effects, including blood clots.

Among the 134,000 AstraZeneca shots administered in Norway before the suspension, five cases of severe thrombosis, including three fatal ones, had been registered among relatively young people in otherwise good health. One other person died of a brain haemorrhage.

On April 15, Norway’s government ignored a recommendation from the Institute of Public Health to drop the AstraZeneca jab for good, saying it wanted more time to decide.

READ MORE: Norway delays final decision on withdrawal of AstraZeneca vaccine 

The government has therefore set up a committee of Norwegian and international experts tasked with studying all of the risks linked to the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, which is also suspected of causing blood clots.

Both are both based on adenovirus vector technology. Denmark is the only European country to have dropped the AstraZeneca
vaccine from its vaccination campaign, and said on Tuesday it would “lend” 55,000 doses to the neighbouring German state of Schleswig-Holstein.

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