Coronavirus scientists and experts agree on one point today: if the first steps had been taken, like quarantine, earlier in Belgium, we could have avoided deaths.
It seems obvious today, our country started too late in its fight against the Covid-19.
In February, when the epidemic had not yet entered the country, voices were raised calling for stricter health measures, but they were not heard.
Wuhan: where it all started.
December 28, 2019. At Wuhan Central Hospital, Doctor Ai Fen Detects the Very First Case of Covid-19. Two days later, his colleague, Dr. Li Wenliang launched the alert. He died of Covid-19 five weeks later. The Chinese authorities have accused them both of spreading rumors. Li Wenliang will be investigated.
Doctor Ai Fen, who had shared his diagnosis on social networks, will be ordered to stop communicating. To her husband she will say: “ If something happens to me, take good care of the children “.
But a month later, Chinese leaders realize the facts. On January 27, 2020, China announced 81 deaths from the coronavirus and advised against displacement.
In Belgium, no measures for flights from China
What are we doing in Belgium? Nothing, of course, to do with the Chinese Communist regime. But while Germany recommends canceling trips to China, Belgium only recommends trips to Wuhan, the epicenter of the disease. No additional measures will be taken for flights from China, neither tests nor quarantines.
Belgian nationals will nevertheless be repatriated from Wuhan and tested. We learn on February 4 that one of them will be positive for coronavirus. It will be the very first case in our country.
WHO: a global health emergency
On January 30, WHO called the virus “a global health emergency.” In Belgium, at the end of January, there is still no coronavirus, since the first case will be announced on February 4.
A group of scientists has made mathematical projections on the number of flights arriving in the country and deduced that the risk for Belgium of being infected by covic-19 was 2% compared to 13% for France or 25% for England.
On January 28, in an interview with RTBF, Marius Gilbert said : “Belgium is not necessarily the country where the risk is the highest for the simple reason that the volume of flights arriving in Belgium is much lower than that arriving in France or Germany”.
On February 24, 2020, northern Italy went into quarantine. Three days earlier, the first patient covid-19 died on the peninsula.
March 1, the start of the epidemic in Belgium: quarantine is not recommended
On March 1, the day after the carnival holidays, a second case of coronavirus appeared in Belgium. She’s an Antwerper from France.
In Woluwé-Saint-Lambert, the mayor Olivier Maingain is the first elected official to take quarantine measures. Many Belgians went skiing in northern Italy. By a police order, he prohibited anyone returning from a risk area from frequenting closed public places such as schools. The measure is considered disproportionate.
Steven Van Gucht, president of the coronavirus scientific committee, declares on the set of the news from March 1 : “It is not a good idea to ask people to stay at home […] The Belgian state does not recommend this measure at all. “
We don’t listen to whistleblowers
As for Olivier Maingain: ” They made fun of me. I was told that I wanted to be talked about, as if I had been waiting for the global coronavirus crisis to come forward. I had the impression that some people were shirking their responsibilities. Me as mayor, municipal law requires me to fight epidemics. ”
The same March 1st, returning from Italy, passengers at Charleroi airport were surprised: ” I don’t see anyone with a mask, I don’t understand, as soon as there is a case in Belgium, it will go very quickly “said a man. Another: “I come back from the Venice area, there is no control”.
The “drama queens”
On February 28, 2020, virologist Marc Wathelet had nevertheless written an open letter to the Minister of Health: ” Your public statements suggest that you do not fully understand the nature of the danger facing Belgium and the rest of the world. ” He adds : ” We also wonder about the lack of recommendation, screening, quarantine and supervision for people who return to Belgium from a contaminated area, also knowing that the incubation period can exceed two weeks and that there are cured patients who have been reinfected. “
Maggie De Block will respond with a final tweet: “Another drama queen, in other words, do not dramatize.
Marc Wathelet, doctor of science: “She says: we are doing everything we can to prevent the virus from entering the country. We wonder what they are doing. In reality, they are doing nothing. The only thing that had to be done was “was to put people who returned from Italy in quarantine. This is what made the epidemic started in our country.” Marc Wathelet will not be listened to any more when he recommends canceling the book fair and batibouw.
Maggie De Block: a mild flu
As for Maggie De Block, she seems to play down the coronavirus. On March 5, in the House, she described coronavirus as mild flu. ” We’re talking about news here, but mild flu which will continue to travel around the globe and then become seasonal flu like we just had one. “
A few days earlier, on his blog, doctor Philippe Devos had also alerted him. He calculates – his projections will be disputed – that without more drastic precautionary measures than with the flu, the risk is to have 850,000 people infected with the coronavirus in Belgium And he concludes that there will not be enough beds for hospitals.
Philippe Devos, president of Absym, and intensivist at CHC de Liège: “I have reactions saying that my figures are impossible, not realistic. People only read the headlines, that’s what happened with my article and what worries me is that the politicians don’t haven’t read it in detail either. “
March 17, 2020. The Prime Minister announces containment. Today, it is estimated that 7 to 8% of the Belgian population has been infected. About 800,000 people, despite sanitary measures. But why have the risks been minimized and why have the warnings of Marc Wathelet and Philippe Devos not been considered credible?
We could have avoided the dead
Philippe Devos: ” Each time, we have found excuses. It’s not home, Italy has an underdeveloped health system, which is not true for northern Italy. We were in denial of reality, and that weighed heavily “
Yves Coppieters, professor of public health at ULB, said that Belgium made the necessary decisions a week late. He adds that if we had taken these measures earlier, we could have avoided deaths: “Any measure taken, be it confinement, testing, targeting, decreases the chains of transmission. The faster we act, the fewer deaths we have.”
When every hour, every day counts to curb an epidemic, a week is long. Did Belgium err on the side of optimism? With hindsight, we will probably understand better what happened to this new virus …
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