effects of school closure and curfew not studied
The Dutch Safety Board (OVV) concluded this on Wednesday morning in part two of its three-part corona evaluation. In the first report, the Dutch Safety Board already noted that the Netherlands was ill-prepared on a pandemic, but also in the months after the outbreak there was little learning capacity, the stern conclusion now drawn.
“It has few effects of corona measures, few effects of the measures,” writes the Dutch Safety Board. Because effects of are uncertain, the continuation remains. More needs to be made known so that new ones can arise.
That is why the OVV is of the opinion that definitive research must now be carried out into the effects of various lockdown rules, so that all (side) desired effects are mapped out. The fear of overflowing ICs still dominated policy in 2020/2021, according to the OVV: ‘The dormant problems, social effects and consequences have been secondary.’
Experts from the RIVM and the cabinet on the use of steeds that are scientific research into the losing rules, from that moment on, rough estimates were used. For example, the curfew in combination with the home visit restrictions would inhibit the spread of the virus by ‘about ten percent’. Within the framework of the framework, it has been decided on a ‘broad corona approach’, with the new Social Impact Team under the former GroenLinks.
Four themes
For this report, the OVV looked specifically at four themes: the vaccination strategy, the mouth mask rules, the curfew and school closures. The research period will be in September 2020 – July 2021 and therefore concerns the second and corona waves. The British variant again forced the cabinet to take drastic measures in the winter of ’20/’21, culminating in the curfew in January.
The OVV repeats its previous criticisms of the OMT and decision-makers in politics were always rigid. For example, in the case of the infamous mouth mask dossier, politicians first only hid behind the ‘white coats’ of the OMT and did not consider a mask necessary, only to then proceed to make a mask obligation under political pressure.
role mixing
And in the OMT, experts weighed scarcity of stuff in their advice about wearing mouth-nose masks, according to the Council, assuming that this should not make a difference for their medical scientific advice.
‘In addition, the Council sees once again that the cabinet takes little account of different scenarios,’ write the researchers. Other advisory boards share that criticism. More often and before, experts have insisted on an approach in which politicians and society prepare and fully elaborate the chosen corona scenarios – from colds to ‘worst case’, including a set of legal instruments in case emergency measures are needed.
OVV about vaccination strategy
The Netherlands only started large-scale vaccination in January 2021. Betting for a long time on one vaccine (AstraZeneca) and one method (injecting via the general practitioners) fits in with the pattern of insufficient preparation and development of scenarios, the Dutch Safety Board writes: ‘Due to the unilateral focus on the AstraZeneca GP scenario, alternative scenarios are not possible. prepared in time.’ The government also communicated too strongly about expectations on this theme: for a long time it was stated that the vaccination round ‘provided light at the end of the tunnel’ and that with a shot ‘normal life comes closer’: ‘If it subsequently turns out that a high vaccination not automatically start that measures are not necessary, a feeling of disillusionment arises.’