Lately there has been a lot to do about the vaccination policy of the Dutch government. While all European countries have now started vaccination has not yet been injected in the Netherlands.
Started late
It is now clear how the vaccination strategy should look like. Yesterday, Ernst Kuipers (from the National Coordination Center for Patient Distribution) and Marc Kaptein (medical director Pfizer Netherlands) explained to Eva Jinek why we can start vaccinating so late:
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Minister Hugo de Jonge of Public Health admitted in a letter to parliament that he should have made different choices in the vaccination strategy. “I can now conclude that we have proved insufficiently agile to be able to accommodate the changes that were occurring quickly enough. That could have been and should have been done differently,” wrote De Jonge.
Not a nice debate
Both government parties and the opposition are strongly criticizing the changed corona policy and the minister. The parliamentary debate that is scheduled for later today will therefore not be ‘pretty’, political commentator Frits Wester expects.
“Why later than other countries, why were the GGDs not asked to prepare earlier?” Wester wonders. “It goes without saying. De Jonge should have prepared the GGDs for other scenarios earlier.”
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GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver spoke yesterday in the radio program 1op1 of ‘serious concerns’ about the functioning of De Jonge. “How many mistakes can you make?” He said after a week in which the minister had to adjust his vaccination strategy time and again. “Hell, the vaccines are in the Netherlands and we are not injecting yet. That is just not good.”
PVV leader Geert Wilders accused the CDA minister of “total incompetence” for that reason.
Politician in a corner
De Jonge is already putting his hand in his own bosom: “The ultimate defense of a politician in the corner,” says Wester. Yet the political commentator also understands the corona minister. “So many advisers, so many contradictory and incomplete advice. Just go for it. Countries around us started earlier, but are now also running into teething problems.”
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Live from 11am
The parliamentary debate with Minister De Jonge can be seen live on this site from 11 a.m.
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Despite all the criticism, De Jonge will probably survive today’s debate. “Now the dismissal of a minister does not solve the problem,” Wester explains. “That science probably makes the debate again like all previous debates. Minister De Jonge humbly and with today’s science. That way he will survive again. “
Swabbing course
Then it will be a matter of waiting. “The swabbing course will be adjusted a few more times”, Wester expects. “But with all the accusations that the House can justify, I think we should do it for the time being. And that will give Minister De Jonge time again.”
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