From Iceland — Icelander Faces Police Investigation For Refusing Screening And Quarantine

Icelander Faces Police Investigation For Refusing Screening And Quarantine

Published December 7, 2020

Photo by
Vísir

On Saturday, Vísir reported on the case of plastic surgeon Elísabet Guðmundsdóttir, who arrived in Iceland on Friday night and refused both screening and quarantine. She was then present at the protest on Austurvöllur at 1pm on Saturday–an anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine protest organised by the group Coviðspyrnan, which was attended by just 30-40 people.

The clear border rules state that passengers coming to Iceland must choose between two COVID-19 tests with a five day quarantine or a fourteen day quarantine. Elísabet refused the test at Keflavík Airport, and was let through by the police when she threatened to talk to her lawyers. However, Elísabet still didn’t quarantine: “I’m just coming into the country. There is no legal basis for forcing people to do anything. I am not in quarantine and I have not gone for screening,” she said.

Elísabet posted various videos and photos on Facebook expressing her upset at this supposed violation of her human rights. These posts ranged from protest videos captioned “we want freedom” to a photo implying that both coronavirus and its vaccine were created by Bill Gates, as well as a fictional quote from Henry Kissinger claiming that mandatory vaccinations can “genetically modify children and sterilise them.” For the record, there is no evidence that Henry Kissinger ever said this, and Kissinger’s representatives have confirmed that it is “a complete fabrication”. Also, Henry Kissinger is an ex US Secretary of State, not an epidemiologist. Evidence still suggests that the coronavirus vaccine vaccinates against coronavirus and does not genetically modify children.

Elísabet was previously fired from Landspítali’s breast centre following her strong criticism of epidemiological measures on Útvarp Saga.

Chief police officer Ásgeir Þór Ásgeirsson could not comment on individual cases, but confirmed to Vísir that the police were indeed dealing with a case involving violation of the Epidemic Prevention Act. There have been previous examples in Iceland of people being fined large sums of money for similar violations.

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