Members of parliament, from the opposition and the coalition, believe that the outgoing cabinet should work more on a long-term strategy for corona. That’s what they say in a tour of news hour.
Like many experts MPs expect that we will not be rid of corona after this winter. “We will be stuck with this for a while,” says Liane den Haan (Den Haan faction). “Eventually it will phase out a bit, but I suspect that it will take another one or two years, unfortunately.”
Maarten Hijink of the SP is more pessimistic. “That virus is not going away. So you will have to find a way not to have to bump from lockdown to lockdown.”
Opposition members believe that the cabinet is now always introducing corona measures too late, without a clear strategy. Den Haan: “You lose your courage. The booster campaign, I already asked for that in June, is now starting to get going.”
‘There is still no strategy’
But there is also criticism within coalition parties that the government always waits too long before taking action and does not have a clear vision. “We now always steer on those waves,” says Mirjam Bikker (ChristenUnie). “If you do that, you can lose track. I have already asked the cabinet several times to come up with a strategy for an endemic situation, if it is more certain how corona will stay with us.”
Den Haan also says that he has already asked about the long-term vision of the cabinet “three or four corona debates ago”. “It isn’t there, and it still isn’t.”
The party-less Pieter Omtzigt emphasizes that MPs themselves are also too busy with loose corona rules, as experts recently said. “The House thinks it should interfere with individual measures. We should not do that. We should ask about the strategy, the planning, but not whether the curfew can be half an hour earlier or half an hour later. That is the operational implementation and We have a government for that.”
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You must have a minister who perseveres and does not always wait too long.
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Omtzigt and Bikker point to a report of the WRR and the KNAW in which the two scientific advisors of the government outline five future scenarios for corona. Omtzigt: “Corona will only disappear in the first scenario and we will have to deal with it for a long time in the other four scenarios.”
Cabinet, go and work out those scenarios, Bikker says. The other MPs also call on the government to make plans for the coming years. Instead of waiting for the next wave, “we have to do things now that we know we will need again next winter”, according to Jan Paternotte (D66).
Flexible layer of IC staff
The MPs have different ideas for the long term. The boosters should be available earlier next year, they believe. “They should in any case be ready for all the elderly and vulnerable by October next year,” says Paternotte.
Hijink (SP): “You will probably have to give the elderly and vulnerable a shot every year to prevent them from getting sick and other care having to be postponed. Then you have to have your vaccines on time and a minister who perseveres and not always just right. wait too long.”
“It is very important that we properly position the organizations to vaccinate, boost and test in those different scenarios,” says Aukje de Vries of the VVD. “And that we ensure that the IC capacity, for example with a flexible shell, can better respond to pandemics.”
Already at the beginning of the pandemic, the cabinet was slow to take measures. The Netherlands did not choose to really fight corona until late, according to this Nieuwsuur study:
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This is how our corona strategy was really put together
–Hijink also argues for a “more robust healthcare system that is much more resistant to large numbers of patients”. In addition, the capacity of the GGDs must be structurally higher, he believes. “So that we can maintain that testing and source and contact research. We now have to release that very early in every wave, so that we lose sight of the virus.” Omtzigt: “If you want to test now: good luck, it will cost you hours in the queue.”
Joba van den Berg of the CDA thinks it is smart to concentrate corona care “at certain locations where you also deploy care reservists and retirees”. Incidentally, she is the only one who advocates waiting with a long-term strategy until 2022. “We have to get this wave down first.”
Hard, principled choices are not on the wish lists of the MPs who news hour spoke. For the time being, no party is prepared to opt for compulsory vaccination. Only D66 and VVD have indicated that they are in favor of a 2G policy.
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