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@hans1671102377 · 26 Nov 2021

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The Netherlands can learn a lot from Italy's corona policy

The Netherlands can learn a lot from Italy's clear and consistent corona policy.

Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer

The trick is, in my opinion, to bring the magnanimity in all mourning, sadness and frustration, not to mention that it is also a privilege to be able to learn from the most serious crisis our society has been going through for decades.

I personally went through all stages, from laughable underestimation of the virus in the first two months of 2020 to panic about the realization of my mistake and the seriousness of the threat. In my area, people have died, I have been worried about others and my concerns are not over yet. I have made myself angry about people who value their own freedom more than the freedom of their fellow human beings, and my anger has not been fiddled. At the same time, I have come to realize that the measures issued by the government, no matter how necessary they may be, do not always sit on a coherent logic and shaving along the edge of what I should be considered acceptable to a rule of law. As a result, I have come to understand people who oppose some of these measures, although I do not belong to those people and although I remain of the opinion that those people do not have the right to ignore those measures. I am deeply grateful for the vaccines, which are an unheard of triumph of science, and by now, just like everyone else, I am beginning to understand that while the vaccines are indispensable to control the effects of infections, they do not constitute a definitive solution to the risk of infection and all the problems for susceptible individuals and society as a whole.

I can compare the situation in two different countries, in Italy and the Netherlands, and I learn a lot from the differences. I have read hundreds of articles about the pandemic and its consequences over the past eighteen months and continue reading on a pretty much daily basis. I don't think many days have passed over the past year and a half that I haven't talked to anyone about the pandemic, often with Stella, who also informs himself in depth, or with doctors in the Netherlands and Italy who I count among my friends, such as Stefan and Sara. I read conspiracy theories because I want to understand how these are put together. I try to see greater connections and think about polarization in society and the lessons we can learn from the pandemic about the sustainability of our neoliberal consumer society and the livability of our planet.

The Netherlands is not a little worse than Italy, nor twice as bad, but more than eight times as bad

I do all this, because I think that's my job as your columnist and as a citizen of this world. I learn and consider it a privilege that I have been given the opportunity to learn. But in all this, I miss one thing, and that is a fraction of a flinter of a shadow of the same learning ability in the Dutch government.

I am writing this right after a new day record has been reported: 23,789 positive corona tests in the Netherlands. I compare that to Italy. The Italian population is 3.41 times the size of the Dutch, so the Dutch day record would translate into 81,229 positive tests for Italy. In reality, there are 10,047, so the Netherlands is not a little worse than Italy, nor twice as bad, but more than eight times as bad. And here in Italy, it's also cold. The weather is not an explanation. The vaccination rate in Italy is good, but is slightly lower than in the Netherlands. So that's not an explanation either. It is a matter of policy, which is becoming clearer.

I am writing this after it was just announced that Prime Minister Rutte and Minister De Jonge have advanced their ritual press conference to next Friday. Stricter measures are expected to be announced. Italian Prime Minister's Last Press Conference Dates Back to Spring 2020. It is not necessary in Italy to announce new measures in panic, because the measures have always remained in force. Since the end of last year's very first wave, there has been a kind of roadmap that differs from the Dutch roadmaps, because the government that designed it also adheres to it. It is perfectly clear at which figures which measures will be taken. Everyone has known exactly where he or she stands for a year and a half. The basic rules, such as distancing and face masks, have always remained in force. Most importantly, there hasn't been a single Italian politician who has said at any point that the pandemic is pretty much over. In Italy, the stickers that moons up to a meter and a half away were never triumphantly scratched off the floors because the government wanted to raise its popularity figures by making us believe that its policy had paid fruit. In Italy, the Minister of Justice and Security has not appeared on television to sing the song “Say, face mask, where are you going”. The Italian Minister of Health would never make it in his head to say that we are right before the finish of a marathon.

The virus has never been under control in the Netherlands, even when the government said it was

The consequence of the consistent and clear policy of the Italian government is that since the dramatic very first wave, the figures have continued to remain well below the Dutch figures. The figures that apply in the Netherlands as a reason for abolishing measures would mean code yellow or orange in Italy, with all measures that entail. The virus has never been under control in the Netherlands, even when the government said it was.

A year and a half, the Dutch government, with the support of specialists, has been able to work on a long-term strategy to control the pandemic and the result is that the Netherlands is currently estimated to be ten days away from code black, in which doctors will have to choose who can still be helped and who, unfortunately, in the absence of capacity, will have to choke on a stretcher in the hallway.


Column Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer on Blendle

Concerns about new variant B.1.1.529. What measures are being taken to keep this variant out, which travel restrictions are being imposed and whether this variant has already been identified in NL. The Gardian