“Current infection figures create devilish dilemma” – Wel.nl

The corona virus is spreading again, but still mainly among young people. It was reason for the cabinet to tighten up the corona rules a bit, but not to go all out. Experts explain to the NOS that we are at a difficult point in the epidemic, but that something needs to change.

“There is no clear moment from here and no further,” concludes medical microbiologist Marc Bonten of the UMC. “But the trend is not going to change by itself. Sooner or later this will lead to risks for the elderly. ”

“Something happened that we had not predicted: a lot of infections in young people and few hospital admissions,” says Bonten. That creates a “devil’s dilemma”. “Are you going to intervene in the group with the most infections but the least consequences?”

Epidemiologist Patricia Bruijning of the UMC is more certain. “It always takes a while before you also see the effect in hospital admissions.” She calls it naive to think that the Netherlands is capable of spreading the virus only among young people. “Nowhere in the world has a country succeeded.”

She therefore thinks that the new measures are not strict enough. “My feeling is that it is too little.” According to Bonten, we have to wait and see. “It’s one big experiment. With these measures, the threshold for getting together is somewhat higher. But they are small steps, in the hope that it works. ”

Bron (nen): WE