Will this be the last corona winter? And will the attack that the virus makes on the health and well-being of the Dutch in the coming months remain as limited as everyone is now hoping? Maybe, maybe not.
It is encouraging that the now prevalent Omikron variant is less sickening than previous forms of the coronavirus and that some groups have even been allowed to opt for a fifth vaccination. After two severe corona winters, everyone is in one way or another an experience expert, whether they have experienced an infection themselves or not.
This also gives hope for the winter months: if measures are needed again, the implementation will probably go more smoothly than in previous years. Sectors are better prepared by making their own plans to adapt to the virus reality of the moment.
But we don’t know as much about the virus as we could have known, which is regrettable. Because the government has failed to properly investigate the effectiveness and possible unintended consequences of various measures, writes the Dutch Safety Board in its second evaluation of the corona approach, these measures continue to have an unnecessarily large improvisation level.
The mask obligation, school closures and curfews: these are interventions that aroused resistance, but which the cabinet – on the advice of the Outbreak Management Team – deemed necessary. However, the government has “not or barely” had it determined for itself, according to the Council. For example, the decision for the second school closure (winter 2020-2021) was made without knowing exactly the intended and unintended effects of the first school closure (spring 2020).
This is particularly problematic because the support surface for such measures is subject to wear and tear. Anyone who now wants to propose a school closure again will have to be prepared after the accumulated learning disadvantages, the increased loneliness among young people and the organizational difficulties of teachers and parents. Especially because many people have now experienced that a corona infection in themselves or their loved ones was relatively mild. That puts solidarity to the test.
Now that the contamination figures are rising quickly and there are over 1,100 When patients with Covid-19 are in hospital, the need for measures is once again imaginable. In addition, there is now also more insight into the major consequences that lung covid can have on human lives. Hundreds of patients who shared their experiences with NRC told how the simplest things of everyday life – walking up the stairs, running an errand – can become an ordeal for months at a time. Their health damage is so great that this risk must also be included in the consideration of possible measures.
The Dutch Safety Board argues in favor of conducting a separate investigation of the measures taken previously and of properly monitoring future measures. It is not satisfied with the counter-argument – that the effects of the individual interventions are difficult to isolate – because such studies have indeed proved possible in other countries.
The government would do well to follow this advice. Even if the results come too late for this winter, the knowledge gained could prove useful in the next pandemic.
Read also No more cycling, no more singing, no more living
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of October 13, 2022