Minister of Health Ernst Kuipers has sent more than four hundred pages of internal communication about the OMT recommendations to the House of Representatives. This shows that most of the ministry’s comments were aimed at removing ambiguities. However, a number of attempts have also been made to change the content. Sometimes the OMT adopted the Ministry’s proposals, sometimes not.
Elderly
In May 2020, emails were sent back and forth about the advice issued by the OMT about visiting the elderly. A ministry official complained that the advice from the OMT is more complicated and strict than what the cabinet had said before. “Does this have to go with OMT now?” the officer asks. He or she also suggests thinking about it for another week.
The RIVM objected that the experts “did not find the proposal submitted to them strict enough”. “In terms of communication, I fear this will not work and ministers will not do it this way,” VWS responds. This extensive memorandum with advice on visiting the elderly was also published in the end.
Waiting times
A comment that excessive pressure during source and contact investigations may lead to longer waiting times at the GGD was removed by the OMT in December of that year. As far as appears from the documents, VWS had not explicitly asked for this. However, the ministry criticized the text because it would not do justice to “the efforts that have been made to ensure that there is sufficient testing capacity.”
Something similar happened with a request from May last year following a discussion about reopening schools. Then the OMT initially suggested that unvaccinated teachers be offered a vaccination more quickly because they had not all been vaccinated yet. “Perhaps it would be better if the OMT finds that not all teachers have been vaccinated yet?” an official counters. What he meant by that is not entirely clear. In fact, the final advice stated that it was not useful for teachers to test faster because that would prevent the schools from opening earlier.