The variations of the coronavirus that are now emerging in many countries are not disturbing or surprising. The virus is simply looking for a balance to survive in humans, but that will end once, says virologist Jaap Goudsmit in BNR’s The Friday Move. With the right vaccination policy, we can be out of the crisis within four months, he says. “I think we’ve had it now, I’m very optimistic.”
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You have to offer people the perspective of freedom and that is possible, says Goudsmit, for example by vaccinating ‘smarter’. ‘But we have become a very bureaucracy. That is ideal for peacetime, but in times of crisis you have to feel that you are doing everything you can. ‘ To then arm yourself against subsequent pandemics. I want the corona vaccine to be included in the flu, pneumococcal, whooping cough and shingles vaccination in September. “
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Goudsmit looks with some surprise at the Dutch vaccination policy. ‘There are vaccines in the cupboard for four million elderly people. The fact that all kinds of groups, such as health workers, are now the first to be vaccinated is an incorrect principle: you should only vaccinate from the highest age to the lowest. ‘ Then you could have given all the elderly the first shot in April or May. ‘But then you have to vaccinate day and night. At the current rate, it will take years. ‘
Prevention
And as the Health Council has already advised four times: you have to vaccinate from the highest to the lowest age, Goudsmit explains. After all, the vaccine is intended against a virus, and the only way to relieve the burden on hospitals is to prevent people from lying there. ‘My plea is: you vaccinate out this crisis, and then really tackle prevention. The current problem is also the result of the life we have led. ‘
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The tricky thing about prevention is that the end result is often not visible. ‘The importance is often not seen; if you have had another polio case, you understand that vaccination against polio makes sense. But when everyone is healthy, you think: why should I take a vaccine? ‘ It turns out to be politically difficult. ‘The essence is that you have to start that battle in a healthy way. That is why you have to spend a few hundred million euros on prevention, of the 100 billion euros that we spend in total on disease. ‘
Delta plan necessary
In his book ‘Free from Corona’ Goudsmit discusses the results of recent research by thousands of researchers around the world, and how to distinguish fact from fiction. He argues for a Delta Plan, for the new era – all by Goudsmit Immunoceen baptized – to usher in. ‘You have to find ways to convince people that something shouldn’t happen. That is only possible by shifting money and putting a bonus on healthy living. ‘
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Goudsmit notices time and again that making decisions in the Netherlands is an ‘extremely difficult phenomenon’. ‘Those vaccines did not come out of the blue, they succeeded because in forty years cumulatively such good science has been conducted that it could now be done in such a short time. In the UK and the US, massive investments have also been made in making these vaccines, while the Netherlands and Europe have mainly invested in the option of using them. ‘
