Do you remember Jan-Erik Wilthil? He’s Norwegian state broadcaster NRK’s go-to journo™ in regard to all things Covid-19.

We last talked about one of his pieces—but there are many, many more available in these pages—and today’s posting follows up on his last dedicated piece, a bruahahahahaha, or tempest in a teapot, kind of reporting™ on:

And since it’s that particular season of the year with increased numbers of people on sick leave, let’s not forget to re-consider what Mr. Wilthil wrote about that topic a year ago:

I warmly recommend that posting to you, for it shows a good deal of things that are—well, I’ll let you fill in that word by citing a bit from it:

There is no consistent data on community spread of COVID-19 in Norway for the entire period of 2020 to 2023.

Translation: every inference, let alone any reference, is based on…well, what exactly? Models, assumptions, and believes that cannot, due to the absence of consistent data, ever be assessed using the scientific method.

There’s loads of data splice (putting together inputs from different sources measuring different things), such as revealed in the following quote:

Since the implementation of the ‘vaccine-only strategy’ in 2022, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing and subsequent registering of results became an even more unreliable indicator, and wastewater ribonucleic acid (RNA) concentration measurements for SARS-CoV-2 were only performed between mid-2022 and the end of 2023.

Plus there’s a big, fat stinkin’ lie about the ‘vaxx-only strategy’ since (Feb.) 2022, which is a highly problematic claims as it was upon public health officialdom’s recommendation (realisation) that mandates in the post-Omicron era would not confer any public health benefits, which I’ve also covered ad nauseam in these pages (mainly to keep the receipts):

Oh, and lest I forget to mention this: last year’s study about ‘excess sick leave’ was coauthored by the same intrepid researcher (Richard Aubrey White), who also wrote the paper underlying the top-linked bruahahaaha about excess mortality—it’s a small world, ain’t it?—and it is telling:

That ‘study™’—‘Aberrations in medically certified sick leave and primary healthcare consultations in Norway in 2023 compared to pre-COVID-19-pandemic trends’, Archives of Public Health volume 82, Article number: 187 (2024)—is the functional equivalent of scholastics engaging into Theodicy battles: given the lack of data, its results (sic) may only be reproduced by re-running the model, but they cannot be empirically proven. It is pure make-believe.

With these preliminaries settled, at least for the time being, let’s see what journo™ Wilthil has up his sleeves today.

Translation, emphases, and [snark] mine.

Increased Sick Leave: ‘Affects large parts of Europe’

Large parts of Europe are experiencing an increase in sick leave after the coronavirus made its entry, according to researchers from NAV [orig. Ny arbeids- og velferdsforvaltning, or Labour and Welfare Administration, i.e., social insurance provider in charge of paying out sick leave payments]. ‘People are much sicker now’, says nurse Margrethe Ek.

By Jan-Erik Wilthil, NRK, 29 Sept. 2025 [source; archived]

‘My impression is that people are much sicker now than before. A cold is no longer just a cold. A day or two at home on the couch is not enough’, says nurse Margrethe Ek who is also the representative of nursing staff at Drammen Hospital [which is found in the Oslo metro area northwest of the capital].

Sick leave in her profession is the highest in the country. In recent years, it has become even worse [I’m sure the Science™ or the like has a clear, quick, and easy answer for this, right?].

Ek believes the reason is complex, and points to a shortage of nurses, sicker patients, and high levels of attrition among employees during the first years of the pandemic [while I’m not saying these are wrong, I’m like: none of these three reasons cited explains a darned thing].

‘But something happened when the coronavirus arrived’, says Ek:

I think the virus itself is a triggering factor. What it does to our immune system and the after-effects of that [oh, we’re talking Long Covid and other sequelae now? How TF can she make such claims—while we know, for a fact™ (that is, as ‘splained’ by the Science™ on top of this post) that there is ‘no consistent data’ on these issues? I don’t mean to deny nurse Ek’s experiences, but in the absence of ‘consistent data’, all these are—anecdotes (sorry, not sorry, Branch Covidians, but you cannot play that shit game twice)]

Now she is receiving support from a research team [care to hold your breath about when ‘support’ from ‘a research team’ for the vaxx-injured will be forthcoming?].

Increases in Several Countries

New figures from NAV show that the increase in sick leave in recent years is not unique to Norway [ah, let’s venture a guess: it’s going to be higher in those places with more coercive vaxx mandates while it will be lower in Sweden—wanna bet?]

Most countries in Europe are experiencing the same development.

Covid-19 should have been highlighted to a much greater extent as an explanation for the increase in sick leave [sure thing: is it too early to ask about the ‘vaxx status’ yet? I mean, will these data be included from the day of first injection or do we wait until 14 days after the second—or any additional—injection before we blame everything on those pesky ‘unvaccinated’ screwing up a perfectly fine public health™ campaign?]

Thus researcher Ivar Lima at NAV who, together with his research colleague Tobias Lunde, has investigated the development of sick leave in most countries in Europe.

Conclusion: something happened in 2020, the year when the pandemic hit the entire world [but…what about the ‘absence of consistent data’? I mean, how can we know without data?]

Sick leave in Europe: changes from 2019 to 2024 (in %)

Based on labour market surveys in select countries; source: NAV/SSB

[note that countries with the most insanely coercive Covid mandates—such as Spain (+63%), Austria/Østerrike (+35%)—are quite prominently featured while, as mentioned above, Sweden (+9%) is not; note, moreover, that Norway’s oh-so-‘vaccine-only’ post-2022 strategy (sic) has apparently led to higher sick leave (+28%) than in Macron’s authoritarian France (+24%)—if there ever was a damning indictment of Norway’s sooper-dooper pandemic management, I submit it’s this (with Swedish data the icing on that particular shit-cake)]

‘Sick leave debate based on the wrong premises’

These figures are cracking the notion of Norway as the ‘different country’ [orig. annerledeslandet, i.e., the widespread feeling (pun intended) that somehow Norwegian public health officialdom did something special] when it comes to sick leave, say the researchers [you can actually observe these geniuses seeing these data and think, ‘well, that didn’t really work out very well, did it?’ But since that is stuff that cannot be admitted lest we’d have to talk about the Lord Voldemort of public health (the poison/death juices), the journo™ piece now turns around from relating stuff to editorialising].

‘The debate is largely conducted on the wrong premises. This is not unique to Norway, but on the contrary part of a broad European increase’, says Lima [see? All you non-experts™—and, apparently, also some of the experts™—did this all the wrong way].

The debate over sick leave in Norway over the past year has been characterised by speculation about Norwegians’ attitudes towards being away from work [that’s of course bogus, for Norwegians are already among those Europeans who work the lowest amount of hours (33.7) per week1] Employers in the Confederation of Norwegian Employers (NHO) and several parties have called for examining cuts in sick pay to reduce absence [muahahahahaha—that’s about the worst political stance that one can take, for unemployment benefits (sic) are a form of insurance, with the Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) merely functioning as a conduit: I can opt-out neither from (gov’t mandated) tax withholding for this or that purpose nor from getting sick, which is why unemployment insurance was set up in the first place: good luck, by the way, monkeying with that, politically speaking2].

Although total sick leave is high in Norway compared to other countries, there is little evidence that the increase itself is due to poor attitudes, the researchers believe [scientists don’t need to believe, they better have evidence, and if they don’t, one cannot market his feelings as facts], notes Lima:

Then attitudes must have changed at the same time in many European countries after the pandemic. It is possible to imagine, but it may not be that likely [Cap’n Obvious].

Points to Three Reasons

Researchers have used two data sets to obtain the figures. Both from so-called labour force surveys [I suppose these are some kind of self-reporting survey, but journo™ Wilhil doesn’t say] and national statistical agencies [huhum, don’t we have reams of data from Norway’s famous, world-leading, and top-notch socialised medical system?]. Both show the same development [so there’s correlation; any corroboration with hard evidence from, say, public health officialdom?]

They point to three reasons for the increase in sick leave:

• Respiratory infections: since the start of the pandemic, there has been a significant increase in sick leave due to covid-19 and other respiratory infections [oh, really? What a genius assessment].
• Long Covid: a significant number [why not cite a number?] of employees have been affected by late effects of Covid-19, a disabling and potentially long-term condition that affects a proportion of those who have been infected [what’s their share?].
• Mental illness: almost half of the increase in Norwegian sick leave after the pandemic can be linked to various mental disorders. Sick leave has also increased in other countries [let that sink in].

[And this is what researcher Lima deduces from his analysis]

There is a documented connection between Covid-19 and long-term conditions. Therefore, it is natural to expect an increase in sick leave in all European countries [keep in mind, though, that this absurd comment comes at the tail-end of the most expensive public health™ (sic) intervention in history and the roll-out of the poison/death juices that remain unmentioned].

‘This affects the entire population’

Sickness absence with mental disorders has been increasing for a long time, and especially since 2022, and up until this year there has been explosive growth.

2022 was also the year when most Norwegians were infected with the coronavirus for the first time [this is perhaps the most egregiously misleading sentence of the piece; here’s how journo™ Wilthil is lying to everyone: he makes these outrageous statements and links to some stuff™]]

A recent NAV analysis concludes that sick leave with mental diagnoses has affected the entire population, not primarily the young [that link—which is in the original reporting™ leads to a f******* press release; and while there is another linked quarterly report from NAV linked therein—Arbeid og velferd nr. 2025-3—, let me cite from this report’s abstract (it’s in English, hence I’ll merely added some emphases and snark:

We find that the number of people on sick leave with a mental health diagnosis has increased by 28 percent between 2018 and 2023 [note the cut-off time proposed by journo™ Wilthil (2022) and the explicit reference to Covid infections]. Furthermore, long-lasting absences have become even longer…

There were few and small changes in who faces a higher risk of sickness absence with a mental health diagnosis between 2018 and 2023. However, young people (18-29 years) have an increased risk compared to people aged 40-49, despite having had the same risk in 2018. Beyond this, the risk of being sick listed with a mental health diagnosis has risen throughout the population

Please refer to the full-length abstract in the footnote3]

According to NAV, there has been a large increase in sick leave related to mental disorders, both in Sweden, Finland, and the United Kingdom. In several countries, the development has been the subject of great debate.

‘We believe that one explanation that has been absolutely underestimated is that mental health may have worsened. We believe that this is something that absolutely must be taken seriously’, says researcher Tobias Lunde.

The analysis says little about possible reasons for the increase in sick leave with mental diagnoses, but the findings provide less support for explanations such as increased use of home offices and social media [once again, ponder the Lord Voldemort of the pandemic analyses].

‘The fact that sick leave with these diagnoses has also increased in several other countries indicates that the population’s mental health may have changed after the pandemic’, says Lunde.

Despite these negative developments over several years, there are positive signs:

Doctor-certified sick leave is decreasing, but is still significantly higher than it was before the pandemic [that’s the main take-away].

Nurse Margrethe Ek hopes that politicians will not implement cuts in sick pay in the future [as I said, it’s a f****** insurance I’m mandated to contribute to]:

It is possible that someone will abuse the system we have. But I think that system is so important for those who do not abuse it. If it is reduced, I think it could turn out very wrong [no shit analysis].

Bottom Lines

Another day, another extra-stupid, and hence painful, piece of reporting™.

Given journo™ Wilthil’s long-standing record of comparably shitty reporting™, I think we may, and fairly so, conclude that he’s doing this either out of incompetence or malice (Occam’s Razor).

Let’s not forget that nurses and healthcare workers were among the first to receive the poison/death juices back in late 2020 and early 2021. Now, I do understand that correlation (sic) isn’t causation, but something™ changed bigly since 2019, and since we don’t have ‘consistent data’ for the subsequent period, what data could one look at? *wink* *wink*

Exactly.

It’s probably—in my estimate, very likely so—the poison/death jabs that are ruled out a priori from any of these mental gymnastics.

Since both experts™ and journos™ offer either obfuscation (‘Sick leave debate based on the wrong premises’) and evasion (no talk about the poison/death jabs), here’s my of course totally obvious theory (sic, and muahahahahahaha) as why mental health has been deteriorating and ‘affecting the entire population’:

…