The Netherlands is open and the aim is for the Netherlands to remain open. With that summary of the new corona strategy, which the cabinet presented last week, the shift in priorities is clear – even if there is another major outbreak of a serious virus or a new variant, the main goal is to “make people and companies to continue as best we can.”
And that is to be welcomed. Because however much the restrictive measures – keeping physical distance, closing catering, schools and theaters – also slowed down the spread of the virus in 2020 and 2021, the social and psychological damage they caused was also great.
Sometimes so great that the question is whether the measures were always proportional, such as the curfew at the beginning of 2021 and the third lockdown at the end of 2021.
Henceforth, according to the new ‘strategy’, a Social Impact Team advise the cabinet on such consequences during a crisis, in addition to an Outbreak Management Team. The Rutte III cabinet relied heavily on the advice of the government for almost two years OMT – that each time calculated which measures had to be imposed on society or could be relaxed. All intended to contain the virus, protect the most physically vulnerable people and not put too much strain on general practitioners, nursing homes and hospitals. The consequences of virus control for the social and psychological well-being of the population will also be weighed in advance by experts.
A whole generation of students and students are now learning again socialize – outside of social media – and at the same time has to overcome learning disadvantages. Young minds are flexible so it goes faster than adults, but still. In addition, not only adults but also children have become a few kilos heavier on average due to sitting at home a lot. In principle, almost everyone can move, but closing sports facilities during the lockdowns made it much more difficult.
Some patients with insidious diseases, such as cancer and heart disease, have died unnecessarily in the past year and a half because their medical treatment had to make way for that of acutely sicker Covid patients. The excess mortality (31,000 above the average in two years) calculated by Statistics Netherlands consisted of Covid patients and other victims. Those other victims will be somewhat protected by the second main goal of the new corona policy: ‘If corona breaks out, care must remain accessible to everyone. For people with corona and for people who need operations and other treatments,” the cabinet writes.
That sounds obvious, but it wasn’t. Too few nurses and too many people who became seriously ill from Covid-19 at the same time narrowed the bottleneck that is access to care.
Apart from the new considerations, the cabinet also wants a structural improvement of the care itself. The capacity must be expanded and ‘better utilised’. In addition to training more nurses, it wants to allow Covid patients to care for at home, with an oxygen bottle, rather than in the hospital. That relieves the hospitals. And competition between hospitals must, during a pandemic, make way for cooperation, as happened during the first corona wave but not anymore. So that the Covid patients or other infectious patients – who are in the hospital for a long time and generate a lot of extra work – are distributed fairly. How that cooperation is enforced in a system where each hospital fights for its own survival is unclear. It is hoped that the new Minister of Health, Ernst Kuipers, who was a doctor and hospital administrator, will have ideas for it.
The government also promises to “monitor closely” the development of the virus. Research into virus particles in sewage water and cooperation with other countries should promote this. In the future, everyone who is ill will have to do a Corona self-test and stay home if it is positive.
The corona measures often took longer than announced. To provide clarity to companies and institutions, “several ministries are making agreements about the rules if corona revives. Then everyone will know what needs to be done.”
The new vision reflects progressive insight. Hopefully the chaos that sometimes characterized the policy, and later the sluggishness (vaccines and boosters) will be a thing of the past.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC Handelsblad on 9 April 2022
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of April 9, 2022