Vaccinations in Germany will begin the day after Christmas, but the Dutch will have to wait until January for their shots. But criticisms have arisen of the hesitant and slow decision making by the Dutch government. Hanco Jürgens of the German Institute of the University of Amsterdam commented that he believes the Netherlands will only really be ready for mass vaccination by March.
While the Netherlands lag behind their neighbours regarding vaccination strategies, systems for tracking vaccinations are also only expected to be ready around March. The Dutch government plan to link vaccinations to DigiD accounts. A downloadable vaccination certificate will be available for you once you log in. But, as mentioned, this system is only expected to be ready three months after the first vaccinations in the Netherlands.
Virologist Marianne Koopmans is asking for double testing for people coming from the UK or SA-to at least try to keep mutated virusses out...(our "government" does not see a need to do so...in polls the right wing conservative-liberals even get more support...
Two more people in the Netherlands have tested positive for the new, fast-spreading variant of coronavirus. Both cases were found in Amsterdam. One person had recently been to the United Kingdom, the other had not.
This is following Sunday’s news that the new variant of coronavirus was found in one person in the Netherlands. The Minister for Health, Hugo De Jonge, has told the NOS that an investigation will be launched into how the two people may have contracted the mutated strain.
Entry ban
On Sunday, it was announced that the Netherlands would impose an entry ban on travellers from the United Kingdom. This meant that anyone looking to come to the Netherlands from the UK would not be allowed to enter the country, resident or not.
De Jonge tells the NOS that he does not believe stricter measures are necessary for the Netherlands. Instead, he says that people need to continue to stick by the current measures.
“It’s not that easy to come up with something on top of that, the current set should be enough if we just stick to the rules very well.”
Jump in numbers
The new variant of coronavirus is not the Netherlands’ only problem. Coronavirus numbers have seen a significant jump this past week with 82,340 people testing positive for the virus. The previous week, that number stood at 58,412.
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. ~Albert Einstein
With our rightwing government putting all responsibilities to "safetyregions", manicupilities, carecenters and the general public it is shocking they get away with their total failure in dealing with this pandemic....
DJ All other EU countries have started vaccinations...In NL-with hospitalcare at breaking point-the government still needs to find people to do the vaccinations, has to decide on wich group will get when vaccinated...
The worst part of this bizarre story is the main government party is GAINING in polls...as if Trump in the US would win the elections because he messed up in dealing with the pandemic...only NL is doing even worse....(Is this a "land of lunatics" by now ???)
Hospitals in the Netherlands were treating 2,751 people for Covid-19 on Tuesday, the most on any single day since the first half of April. The patient total was 20 percent higher than just one week ago, putting the Netherlands on pace to have well over three thousand patients in treatment by January 5.
During the 24 hours leading up to Tuesday afternoon, hospitals admitted 430 more coronavirus patients, eclipsing any other day going back to March 30, data from both the LCPS and NICE showed. That figure was 44 percent higher than the seven-day moving average of 299.
“The number of COVID patients rose above the highest level from the second wave in early November during the past 24 hours," confirmed Ernst Kuipers, the head of the Dutch acute care providers network.
Also over the past day, 72 Covid-19 patients were moved into intensive care, 47 percent more than the moving average of 49. The Dutch government wants this figure to be no higher than ten in order to comfortably relax social restrictions in place from October, which were then tightened in December.
DJ-Hospitals, care centers are calling for help from the military, the fire dept. Even stopping almost critical non-covid care...(including cancer, hearthdisease..) (In a few places (Bunschoten, Barneveld a.o.) in NL over 1% of the population tested positive for Covid19 last week )
The UK variant (UKV) may have been around in NL since november-or earlier (or even started in NL-mink related ?) it must be widespread. The 40 Covid19 cases in a cluster in the Rotterdam region last month-with 5 UKV and a teacher (F-38) dead (from the infection ?) are a clear indication for that.
Like in the UK in NL the "UKV" will get dominant soon in NL. Early investigation-by larger scale testing of samples-may give some retrospective insight.
Since we are (supposed to be) in a strict lockdown with non-essential shops closed, gyms, pools, even barbers closed...extra measures are "hard" and may have limited effect. Curfews...Maintaining present rules is almost impossible..like in healthcare, police has "limited capacity" due to Covid-cases and spending cuts...
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. ~Albert Einstein
End of january we may end up in a "black scenario". Since hospitals can not deal any longer with all the cases some patients will be send away (DJ-often to die..).
In a letter to the Cabinet on Tuesday titled “Playing with fire”, the Red Team, an independent group of medical experts and scientists, strongly advised the government to reconsider opening schools back up in mid-January. The schools were closed when the Cabinet ordered a hard lockdown earlier this month as coronavirus cases sharply escalated.
The organization believes that if schools were to reopen while the number of infections has not yet gone down, an “exponential spread” of the virus will occur. The doctors are particularly concerned because new mutations of the virus, such as those found primarily in South Africa and the United Kingdom.
“The new variants are almost certainly more infectious than the dominant variant in the Netherlands”, so Red Team. A preliminary report conducted by the Imperial College in London, states that the new variant is especially contagious amongst children under the ages of 15. Research has shown that the UK variant is about 70 percent more contagious than what is most prevalent in the Netherlands.
DJ-The november Rotterdam-area school outbreak may have had over 9 UK variant cases..The UK variant (could be from Italy-good info !) is spreading all over the globe...
It will be a "big job" to get any grip on this pandemic (lots of restrictions, increase caccinations..)
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. ~Albert Einstein
The vaccines are there, the capacity to vaccinate is there. There are enough vaccines to also vaccinate those working in care centers. "Politics" is giving people in care centers priority-those working in hospitals may have to wait till summer...
In the meantime hospital care is "at breaking point" in NL "politics" did get that much "out of contact with reality" they seem to be unable to get the urgency...
DJ-Since "social pressure" was growing (exploding) the Dutch "government" has given in to the demand of hospital staff of being included in the first round of vaccinations...(the petition-started by a 12 year old-most likely did increase pressure. Our "government" likes to put the blame on others...people get fed up with this bunch..)
We had no mandatory masks till a few months ago-NL the only country claiming it had no added value. There also was supposed to be no virus spread via children...all other virusses did spread via children but for some magic reason Covid19 did not-at least in NL...
Still we have no mandatory quarantine-even when around 20% of people testing positive go to the supermarket...There still is a lot of (air) travel-our government "strongly advises against it".. that picture did not change with 2 to 5% of all recent cases being the UK variant, some isolated SA variant cases in NL or close to the border showed up as well. And we do have a very open border with lots of traffic..The Dutch "strategy" is to keep the R0 just below 1 so "the economy will not get so much damage"-that strategy is destroying the economy because every reopening gets the R0 above 1...still the insanity goes on....
Right wing governments in the US, UK, NL, Brazil, Japan may be the motors behind this pandemic "saving the economy". In NL several billions went to KLM airlines, but HCWers could not get an increase in their low wages...
DJ-I am not neutral-in my opinion neo-liberalism is destructive. I think "our" "liberal conservatives" (vvd) is a white wash/tax fraud criminal organization also funded by Royal Dutch Shell...Political parties have a hard job getting funded, if you are "close to major companies" interests can easily get mixed.
Since political parties claim they want to control democracy it is often hard to control political parties. Some are against being open on where they get their money from..."for privacy reasons". There is a struggle in wich organized crime is trying to get more grip on political parties-not all parties are even willing to stop that...
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. ~Albert Einstein
Some of the characteristics of modern fascism did not change since a 100 years ago. Anti intelectualism, links with large companies (oil, banks, weapons) are still seen in modern fascism. DJ-While it is clear trump, bolsenaro have many "signs"of fascism here in NL it may be less clear.
It may be hard to keep "right wing populism" and "fascism" apart. Yet when you look at how countries like the US, UK, NL, Brazil are dealing with the present pandemic there are some alarming signals. They all went for "herd immunity"-still seek a balance in "saving the economy" and "protecting the vulnarable"-if the R0 is <1 it is the economy reopening, of course that brings the R0 >1...so "protection" is the claim...
The childcare allowance scandal was the catalyst in this coalition’s collapse. What exactly happened here?
Parents in the Netherlands are usually granted allowances in order to cover the cost of daycare. However, following the release of a report titled, “Unprecedented Justice” last month, the Dutch government has been in hot water.
The report found that more than 20,000 working class parents in the Netherlands had been wrongly accused of fraud by the tax office. These parents were asked to pay back thousands of euros to the tax office, after it concluded that some form of fraud had been carried out.
However, in reality, many of these parents had not committed any fraud and were entitled to the allowances they had been initially granted.
Significant number of dual nationality parents
Of the 20,000 families who were wrongly chased down for fraud, 11,000 of those parents were found to be of dual-nationality. This is something that the tax authority has admitted following accusations of racial profiling.
For years, the tax office would not grant any appeals made by the families affected. As a result, some parents were forced to move homes in order to cover the costs.
The government believe the matter at hand is a political one, not criminal and so those involved in chasing these families will not be criminally prosecuted for the time being.
The government has now answered for this massive failure, one that Rutte acknowledged himself: “It is obvious that we didn’t live up to our standards or protect the citizens from the tax office.”
DJ-Still Rutte wants to be the next PM...While the "right wing liberal-conservative" agenda ment less tax money went to public transport, public housing, public education and public healthcare NL became even more a [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_haven[/url] or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_haven . "We" did sign climate agreements-only to break them...
Maybe the way they deal with the pandemic may make clear where the dividing line is between "right wing populism" and "fascism".
Conservative countries often want to keep a good healthcare-most of the voters for conservative-often religious based-parties are older-they need those hospitals. Housing for the elderly, pensions are well organized.
In countries with "the other sort of conservatism" there are spending cuts on these facilities. These "conservative" parties "do everything for bussinesses"-in their view, "morale" not only the main-but only-measurement of succes.
Retrospection, evaluation of goals and means are a dirty word-the stocks exchanges tell the story...The "succesfull businessman"is the model-all others are "lesser humans"...There is a strong link between "Black Lives Matter" and this-man-made-pandemic.
This pandemic is man-made, "herd immunity" still is the strategy-even if this means killing millions of people...
Old fascism had its concentration camps till the 50's in Spain under "anti communist"franco. Newer forms of-military-fascism did dump political prisoners out of airplanes into the ocean. People simply "went missing". There was a strong cold war link, anti communism linked scum as pinochet with "decent western leaders" as reagan and tatcher. Both supported apartheid in South Africa, did support all kind of fascist "resistence" groups like the contra's in Nicaragua-killing small farmers with knives provided by the CIA.
The newer form of fascism is involved in endless oil wars-in the mean time ignoring climate collapse...One may ask what the future of this pandemic will bring . "Never waiste a good crisis" [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shock_Doctrine[/url] or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shock_Doctrine ; The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism is a 2007 book by the Canadian author and social activist Naomi Klein. In the book, Klein argues that neoliberalfree market policies (as advocated by the economist Milton Friedman) have risen to prominence in some developed countries because of a deliberate strategy of "shock therapy". This centers on the exploitation of national crises (disasters or upheavals) to establish controversial and questionable policies, while citizens are too distracted (emotionally and physically) to engage and develop an adequate response, and resist effectively. The book suggests that some man-made events, such as the Iraq War, were undertaken with the intention of pushing through such unpopular policies in their wake.
In many ways "the future is a continuation of the past". I leave it upon the reader how to name "our new democracy" with 0,1% of the people almost claiming they owne half the world-including main stream media and funding most political parties...
If we want this pandemic to end-and not be misused-WE have to act ! "Saving the economy" by going into "further debts" towards an already way to powerfull elite has nothing to do with civilization or law and order-but is a basic contradiction of that.
"Our"governments do not work for us since they are not paid by us...Do we want a 1984 distopia or do we want democracy ? Do we want to survive or die in a man-made pandemic ?
DJ-Please comment ! Do I see ghosts ? Is there some point in this ?
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. ~Albert Einstein
Dutch government to introduce first curfew since World War II
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Dutch government is set to add the first nationwide curfew since World War II to its already broad lockdown on Wednesday in a bid to limit the spread of new coronavirus mutations in the Netherlands, broadcaster RTL said.
The curfew would allow only people with pressing needs to leave their homes between 8:30 p.m. and 4:30 a.m. local time as of Friday night, RTL said, citing government sources.
Schools and non-essential shops have already been closed since mid-December, following the shutdown of bars and restaurants two months earlier.
This lockdown will remain in place until at least Feb. 9, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said last week.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced plans to impose a curfew on the Netherlands from 8:30 p.m. through 4:30 a.m. starting on Friday. The new restrictions proposed on Wednesday also include making those who fly to the Netherlands take a rapid antigen test to further determine if they are infected with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, a ban on all flights and ferries from the United Kingdom, passenger flights from South Africa, Suriname and parts of South America, and a maximum of one guest aged 13 or older allowed in a household per day.
"We are getting out from under this, but first we have to brace ourselves again, now that more contagious variants are coming our way," Rutte said during a press conference with outgoing Health Minister Hugo de Jonge. He was referring to coronavirus mutations like those which have caused surging numbers of infections in the United Kingdom and South Africa. "The experts are warning of a third wave, and we must take that seriously."
Rutte continued, "The OMT's advice is clear. Do the maximum now, so that we will be ready for what is yet to come."
The outgoing Cabinet will debate the curfew restrictions in Parliament on Thursday. Moments before the press conference, it was not clear if Rutte had support from a majority of MPs to get the curfew approved. With the curfew being a controversial issue, the exiting prime minister opted to try and win over parliamentarians instead of initially attempting to force the curfew through.
DJ-If we had this worldwide ten months ago we would not have been in this pandemic..
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. ~Albert Einstein
Of course I have my own political (left wing) views still trying to make some sense for the Dutch situation-wich mirrors the situation in lots of countries...
The Dutch childcare benefits scandal (Dutch: kinderopvangtoeslagaffaire or toeslagenaffaire, lit. '[childcare] benefits affair') is a political scandal in the Netherlands concerning false allegations of fraud made by the Tax and Customs Administration while attempting to regulate the distribution of childcare benefits.[1][2] Between 2013 and 2019, authorities wrongly accused an estimated 26,000 parents of making fraudulent benefit claims, requiring them to pay back the allowances they had received in their entirety.[1][3] In many cases, this sum amounted to tens of thousands of euros, driving families into severe financial hardship.[1][2]
The scandal was brought to public attention in September 2018. Investigators have subsequently described the working procedure of the Tax and Customs Administration as "discriminatory" and filled with "institutional bias".[4][5] On 15 January 2021, two months before the 2021 general election, the third Rutte cabinet resigned over the scandal following a parliamentary inquiry into the matter, which concluded that "fundamental principles of the rule of law" had been violated.[1][2][6]
-
When the Tax and Customs Administration suspected seriously culpable acts, the Dutch bureaucracy would mark the involved parents with the label "Deliberate intent/Gross negligence" (Dutch: Opzet/Grove schuld). Individuals who had received this label were no longer eligible for standard debt collection arrangements. Under the standard arrangement, debtors repay their debt as much as possible over a two year period (without falling below subsistence level) and any debt remaining after that period would then be considered irrecoverable. Because parents were not eligible for such a payment plan, they became heavily indebted.[21] Later investigations showed that 96% of the "Deliberate intent/Gross negligence" qualifications had been inaccurate.
In November 2020, State Secretary for Finance Alexandra van Huffelen released an internal memorandum from 2016, in which it is recommended that anyone with a childcare benefit debt exceeding €3,000 should automatically receive the "Deliberate intent/Gross negligence" qualification. According to Van Huffelen, it was unclear whether this recommendation had been carried out.[21]
Whereas the scandal mainly involved false allegations of childcare benefit fraud, it later turned out that the authorities also wrongly suspected residents of making fradulent claims to healthcare benefit, rent benefit and supplementary child benefit.[22] In the case of income tax, it was revealed that the Tax and Customs Administration – under the code name Project 1043 – engaged in racial profiling to find suspicious income tax returns.[23] The Tax and Customs Administration subsequently admitted that more than 11,000 cases were subject to special scrutiny because of their ethnic origin or dual citizenship, raising allegations of institutional racism.[24]
DJ-Some other headlines-in fact showing multiple crises at the same time;
-Like the US, UK NL has a government that could be seen as racist, a legal system that "failed" (in the benefits scandal-one of the conclusions of the report). People with a migration background over represented in prisons, low pay jobs/unemployment.
-In parliament ; 1. Members from Holland" the two western "provinces"of NL (with Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague-but also Leiden, Delft, Gouda) 5 million population are very OVER represented; the other 12 million Dutch people are very under represented ...Also MP's often have university degrees, a much wealthier background, most of them hardly use public transport...there is a very large gap between people in parliament and those that they should represent...
-DJ-All together less then 2% of the Dutch population are members of a political party. During the Soviet Union 4% of the S.U. population were party members. Turn out by elections is low in poor area's. Only a minority votes...
-During this pandemic two extreme right wing parties (both with US financial links-and with neo-nazi links) claimed NPI went against basic freedom, "there is no pandemic" etc. Also some religious group "tend to believe more in prayer then science"...
-Weak leadership means church services can go on, demonstrations can go on, no mandatory masks till very late (because the RIVM did go against international science claiming no benefit). Still a lot of air travel, no mandatory working from home if possible (1 in 4, 25% of cases people still have to go to the office because our government fail to make good laws..)
-Over half of the 128 mink farms had to see Covid19 infections before mink farming was stopped. The virus did jump from mink to humans, cats in NL without any (re)action from politics for much to long..
DJ-On this forum I did warn for the "Dutch Disaster" so far other countries even made a bigger mess of how the (mis)managed this pandemic. NL was #3 (after the US and UK) believed to be "best prepared" for the pandemic in 2019. Most likely that idea was based on arrogance for these three-disaster-countries.
The political reaction on the benefit-scandal, riots gives little hope politics is willing to look at itself to find if they can do a better job. Our national (vvd) government did "dump" care, social security etc to manucipilities without proper budget. Their basic idea is "turned around solidarity"-the poor should support the rich...In this pandemic two ideas dominate, herd immunity and "saving the economy" (so reopening if the R0 gets <1-just to see the R0 goes >1 within weeks...unable to learn anything..)
Without political change (the vvd still doing good in polls-will push the law & order agenda for march 17 elections) the crises will worsen. The US did get rid of trump, we may see Mark(et) Rutte as our next PM eventhough his party is destroying NL..
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. ~Albert Einstein
We will have parliament elections march 17-due to corona it may be spread over 3 days. So the riots will influence the elections. "Our"PM Mark(et) Rutte already claimed "no need for social studies" eventhough the cabinet was warned for these riots since summer. Right wing party "wants to send the army in" while EW-control over "social" media-used to mobilize/organize "groups" for riots would be a better idea...
"Strong Leadership", "Law & Order" do score during election times...certainly when this pandemic may be hard to control...
A calculation;
Last week we had 36,000 new cases. Of them 12,000 were the UK variant-with a R0 of 1,27, the "old variant" had a R0 of 0,98. Then "other variants" must be at least 100 with R0 of 1,5 (for the model) .
Reproduction time for the old and UK variant =6 days, in this model the SA variant =5 days.
So after 6 days-february 1 Old Variant (OV) 24,000 x 0,95 (for the model) =22,800
UK variant 12,000x1,25 (model)=15,000
SA variant 100x1,5 jan.31=150 (total 37,950
step 2 ;
feb7 OV=21,660 , UK =18,750 ( feb 5 SA =225) total OV+UK=40.410 (per week) SA=337,5 feb10, 506,25=feb 10, 759,357 feb15
feb13 OV=20,577, UK=23,438 (total of these 2=44,000=over 6000 per day...
feb 20 etc will see increasing numbers from both UK and SA/other variants-most likely getting (far) over 10,000 new cases per day by election day...So this pandemic WILL be a political matter !
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. ~Albert Einstein
We have elections march 17 so "our" "liberal conservative government" under the ever friendly charming P.M. Mark(et) Rutte has to create good pandemic news;
-The number of vaccinations in NL has been "recalculated" and increased by over 100,000.."Hospitals did not include all the numbers" according to the minister of health...In reality vaccinations in NL are still a disaster with no real strategy on who gets what vaccine when...
Teachers, parents, would like to know if schools did increase safety. The official Dutch rule is Dutch children do not spread the virus as much as German, Belgian children do...After sticking very long to "masks have no use" even if the rest of the world had a different view, now we still have to believe (for political reasons) it is OK to reopen schools..
Most people in NL accept this "heroic fight of our government against the monster virus", MSM is not doing a good communication job...Maybe a reminder for the US; trump did lose his reelection, smiling Mark(et) Rutte is not that different but gets away with it...
We do see an increasing housing crisis, poverty is increasing, but also the political gap is widening. NL is moving into a much larger crisis full speed...
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. ~Albert Einstein
UK variant behind 'half of all new cases' in Netherlands, minister says
The variant of the coronavirus first discovered in the UK caused half of all new Covid-19 infections in the Netherlands by 26 January, Dutch health minister Hugo de Jonge has said.
Last week, the country’s health authorities said the new, more transmissible variant was responsible for about a third of all new cases in the Netherlands.
The Netherlands’ primary schools and daycare centres will reopen as planned on 8 February, education minister Arie Slob confirmed on Sunday. Secondary schools and after-school clubs will stay shut, Dutch News reported.
DJ-The fastest way to increase UK variant cases is reopening (for political reasons).
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. ~Albert Einstein
Today we will get over the 1 million tested/reported Covid19 cases. On february 27-2020 we did see our first case in NL. Mid-April we had about 30.000 cases-we almost managed to get it under control but summer hollidays to Spain, France (even "our"health minister went camping in France in the middle of the pandemic) did import cases from those countries in august..
So september 23 we had case 100,000 in NL. November 26 we did get 500,000 cases-now today-february 6-we will reach the 1 million cases (on a population of 17,5 million).
Amsterdam did see till yesterday 59,124 cases, Rotterdam 47,588, The Hague 33,044 and Utrecht 20,554 cases. Tilburg, Almere, Eindhoven and Breda also did see more then 10,000 cases. DJ-The pandemic for NL started in the south (linked with carnaval-insane it was allowed to go on) people did import the virus from Austria, Northern Italy winterhollidays. Later on it moved to the larger cities in the western part of NL. Basicly the northern part of NL did see only limited cases.
There also is a link between religion-the "bible-belt" and cases. There they do have larger families-and a lot of spread is inside the households. Most churchservices go via the internet. Some-more orthodox-still have churchservices but with very limited number of visitors. (Often <10% of capacity-some NL churches have over 3000 seats..).
There are a few Islam-related clusters. But also most mosques do follow restrictions. Some of the higher numbers there also may be related to larger (multi-generation) households.
Vaccination had a slow, problematic start but is gaining speed. Over 500,000 people did get vaccinated.
DJ-Mask wearing was a long term discussion, also do children catch/spread the virus did see NL ignoring international findings...With even "our" king breaking the rules, "our" minister of justice getting married without social distancing (and getting away with it) our "leaders" showed themselves "leaders by words not by action". Today "our" PM Mark(et) Rutte-neo-liberal-made the news because "he never did take a covid-test" due to "lack of symptoms". (He did see his mother die-without a chance to visit her often...).
Still testing in NL is based on symptoms or positive (app)contacts...missing a lot of the almost 60% a/pre-symptomatic spread. Also under 18 y/o still may not get tested "because they do not catch the virus"...
Strategy for NL is still problematic. The real number of deaths may be close to 20,000 (much higher then the official number of 14,294). Herd immunity still seems to be the basic idea, "saving the economy more then the population".
NL is the third largest tax-haven in the world. Companies (IKEA, Rolling Stones) evade for over 30 billions € per year on taxes in other countries by having a (postbox) company in NL. Mink-farming in NL stopped end of 2020 with over 60% of the 128 mink-farms reporting Covid19 infections. NL is the second largest agri-culture exporter in the world after the US. Dairy products exports (to China, Middle East) is a main source of income. Natural gas exports are decreasing to limit earthquake damage in the north of NL.
One of the largest global oil companies (Royal Dutch) Shell (at least 25% "royal"family owned) also is a main economic-and with that-political player.
NL did see very large/largest Q-fever, legionella outbreaks. Birdflu, other animal diseases are not uncommon. DJ-NL may be seen as a high-bio-risk country.
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. ~Albert Einstein
DJ On january 22 the R0 in NL was 0,91 (jan.15 was 0,98) Due to lockdown etc. for the old variant jan 22=0,8 (jan.15 was 0,86). For the UK variant jan 22 R0 was 1,13 (jan 15 was 1,28)..
Due to bad winter weather less testing and less vaccinations-the picture of how the pandemic in NL is developing gets more unclear...
The coronavirus curfew implemented on January 23 must be scrapped with immediate effect, the court in The Hague ruled on Tuesday in a lawsuit filed by protest group Viruswaarheid, NOS and NU.nl report.
The government implemented the curfew based on an emergency law, which states that the cabinet can introduce rules in an emergency without consultation with parliament and the Senate. But according to the court, the curfew was not for an emergency "as is the case with a dyke break". The fact that there was no emergency situation is apparent from the fact that the introduction of the curfew was discussed before it was introduced, the court said.
DJ-The curfew was on the wrong legal basis-according to the court. So the government may "need to find the correct legal basis"...Otherwise there could be "compensating measures" even less/no visitors.
DJ-Update At 16.00 hrs CET/NL time there will be another court asked to decide on when the curfew has to end. The government does not agree with the decission this morning that the curfew was based on the wrong laws...Even if another court now decides the curfew has to stay "DJ There is increased risk for unrest due to people claiming the curfew was unlawfull"...
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. ~Albert Einstein
In NL the UK variant with the E484K mutation has been detected one time last week. The UK so far did find 38 cases of this mutation in the UK variant. The R0 is increasing slightly from 0,91 (january 15) to 0,96...(january 22) Last week did see 25,229 positive tests-about the same number as the week before. Positive tests did increase from 10,7 to 11,5 (should be under 5).
In NL so far 411 times the UK variant has been detected, 54 times the SA variant, and Brazil P1 and P2 13 times. (In NL sequencing is low did increase from 750 to 1500 sequencing-samples per week).
The scandal was brought to public attention in September 2018. Investigators have subsequently described the working procedure of the Tax and Customs Administration as "discriminatory" and filled with "institutional bias".[4][5] On 15 January 2021, two months before the 2021 general election, the third Rutte cabinet resigned over the scandal following a parliamentary inquiry into the matter, which concluded that "fundamental principles of the rule of law" had been violated.[1][2][6]
In this pandemic also a "jungle of rules" are supposed to be helping but often are that complicated a lot of small shopkeepers do not get any help-but large companies-like KLM do get lots of tax money. Also the [url]https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutte-doctrine[/url] or https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutte-doctrine -to avoid to be kept responsible "our" PM wants most of his communications "not in writing" so he can give "his version" fitting the story he wants to tell.
Our country has been ruled by the (once) liberal vvd-now seen by many as right wing populist party-basicly not democratic. [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Omtzigt[/url] or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Omtzigt MP for Christian Democrats (but not elected as party leader in what may have been fraudulent party elections) described NL as a country in wich representatives-supposed to control governments, press, and government itself "did become to close linked".
DJ-I believe in keeping things simple. Evaluations on rules-do they still do the job you want them to do. If you want all people to follow the rules rules must be clear and simple. In the [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volendam_New_Year%27s_fire[/url] or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volendam_New_Year%27s_fire some rules were doors should open to the outside, other rules stated doors had to open inside, enviromental rules limited the number of exits etc...an impossible overload of rules. NL most likely is not the only country with to many rules, burocrazy etc. It may be related to having "to many managers" fighting to keep their job while for the total proces it may be better to get rid of ALL the managers...
In this pandemic healthcare/big pharma/science may try to get a lot of money without the ones voting on the funds having enough basic understanding of what they are talking about. In my own (limited) contacts with local authorities I often find I know more on the rules then they do-while those rules are their job...
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. ~Albert Einstein
In this pandemic vaccinations and testing in NL are problems, communication is un-clear. Still most people will vote "for more reopening" to see more restrictions after the elections due to increase of variants. Still this will not stop restarting international air travel. "The most vulnarable will have to stay at home" while the economy goes above saving lives. The real number of Covid/Pandemic deaths in NL is over 25,000. (Including deaths from the first wave not tested and people who died from other causes because they did not get treatment in time.)
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. ~Albert Einstein
Some 39,527 people in the Netherlands tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection for the week ending at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, a figure which rose by 24 percent from last week. That increase was the sharpest reported by public health agency RIVM since December.
At the same time, testing for the infection also went up by an impressive 28 percent, or nearly a hundred thousand, with 460,844 tests completed by municipal health service GGD by Tuesday morning. That was the most tests finished in the seven-day period since the week ending December 22.
In NL only the [url]https://www.partyfortheanimals.com/nl[/url] or https://www.partyfortheanimals.com/nl has been warning for a pandemic via animal diseases jumping to humans. They are expected to stay around 6 of the 150 seats in parliament. Both the "liberal conservatives" and christian democrats "love to save the economy" and would like "to restart everything" as soon as possible...
With the R0 increasing from 1,01 last friday to 1,06 yesterday-(measured on data from three weeks ago-so the present R0 most likely will be higher-most due the UK variant) even they admit limited room for reopenings.
The SA and P1 variant have been found in NL-most likely some other variants (P3, France/Breton) could be spreading here as well. We do still have open borders and only an "advice" against international travel. A lot of Polish workers went from the UK via NL to Poland-and with them the UK variant.
Allthough "left wing" parties take healthcare more serious they also are not very likely to decrease meat production or air travel. The idea is "Europe has to do that for all EU countries" - that idea is over a decade old...Still due to legal action building of houses, roads etc. in NL is in a crisis. NL is not doing enough to protect the enviroment-looking at EU rules...So even with politics loving to "kick the can down the road" they have to start doing something usefull.
Since the international air transport lobby is linked with military aircraft and fossil fuels it is quite likely Dutch farmers may see stricter rules...Diseases spreading via animals (Q-fever etc) is an extra reason to "stop farmers farming in NL". (Yet another reason is that East European countries can produce at lower costs when they modernize farming there..).
DJ-I was hoping we could have avoided a "third wave" with NPI/lockdown. Also vaccination may have some effect. But the outlook for now is an increase of variants with the UK variant finally becoming dominant and spreading often via schools.
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. ~Albert Einstein
DJ-The outcome of the Dutch elections gave me a feeling a lot of the readers may have had earlier. How can it be that "the people" elect such a group of .....
Well Techno....taste in/of music is always open...when I am in a good mood-or want to get into such a mood-I play another kind of music then when I am worried/frustrated/angry (often it is a mix...)
Here in NL-like the US-a main problem was the "political opposition" did not do a very good job. In the US you could make a choice between war criminal h.clinton and fraud d.trump. Both should be in prison...due to the pandemic d.trump lost the last US election (and I think he did loose that election-even some will keep claiming it was a fraud. The US electionsystem needs reforms-as in many other countries.) To be honest I think there should be some sort of age-limit for "top-jobs" ...
In NL now at least three parties are more or less openly racist/anti-Islam...The largest party "liberal vvd" most likely getting funds via tax-evation (NL is a champion in finding ways to avoid tax-keeping lots of countries from some extra tax-income). Most likely "Royal Dutch Shell" (our "royal family" may have 25% of the shares) is a main political factor NOT discussed...So limits on fossil fuel-in air/road transport are hard to discuss...Also explains why NL is that faithfull NATO-member...
Our agriculture export is second largest after the US-we have more cows,pigs, chickens, goats, sheep etc then citizens-bringing all kind of diseases...
Yet-in the UN happiness top 5 we are at #5 (Finland is #1-US=#20). And I consider myself to be very lucky to be born here...
I did see some comment on our political system-the idea to make a short list of main points/plans and see what parties can agree with that to form a government-so keeping out a lot of conflict material for wich a majority vote would be needed...We have a political crisis but so far it seems to be a "mild one"...
Maybe in politics you have to give "idiots room to prove they are idiots" -but it has a price...
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. ~Albert Einstein
Here in NL we have had the largest Q-fever outbreak in the world. Since we are the 2nd largest exporter (after the US) of agri-products (dairy, pork, chickens...) we are extra vulnarable for all kinds of diseases in animals-spreading to humans. We even managed to get Covid19 in most of "our" mink farms before we ended mink-farming by killing all the minks. Spread from minks to humans remained limited in NL (Denmark had a bigger problem).
All kinds of variants are increasing in NL-they will spread into other-non human-hosts. Since we "did use 2 million vaccines" (on a population of 17,5 million) the "most vulnarable in NL are protected" is the general idea. So "no problem if the R0 gets above 1"...
Stupidity must be a Dutch finding...if not we should patent it !
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. ~Albert Einstein
They found that people with a lower income in all age groups were more likely to die of the virus, but that this effect was most prominent among people under the age of 70. Among under-70s, the chance of dying of the coronavirus was almost three times higher for people with low income than for those with higher incomes.
According to the researchers, this could be due to lower income Dutch living in smaller housing, closer together and their working conditions putting them at greater risk of becoming infected. This effect is also visible in other diseases, the researchers said.
The researchers also found that people who immigrated to the Netherlands in the past few generations were at higher risk of dying from Covid-19 in the first wave. This was especially true for people with a non-Western background, among which the risk of dying of the coronavirus was almost 1.5 times higher than for other Dutch.
DJ Three times higher chances of dying from Covid 19 for lower income groups is "a lot"! Those groups already have a lesser health, lower life expectency. Other countries most likely will not have a picture much different...
DJ-In fact both vaccinations AND testing in NL is still "problematic". If there are enough vaccines then there is a problem in getting people to get those vaccines. They have to call a callcenter to make an apointment-but that can take sometimes hours...also sometimes people have to travel long distance. Also there is discussion on the role hospitals can play. They are willing and able to play a role. The GP/doctors can vaccinate 250.000 persons per week, GGD/general health can do up to 1,5 million per week...but in practice the healthminister wants to keep several hundreds of thousends of vaccines in reserve-to be able to provide a second vaccine.
The formation process was halted last week after one of the two scouts, home affairs minister Kajsa Ollongren, was diagnosed with coronavirus and left the parliamentary complex with a pile of briefing notes visible to waiting photographers. One entry suggested the position of Christian Democrat MP Pieter Omtzigt was due to be discussed at a later meeting with caretaker prime minister Mark Rutte and D66 leader Sigrid Kaag. Omtzigt, the popular and combative backbencher who played a key role in exposing the tax office’s mistreatment of families suspected of child benefit fraud, told reporters before being sworn in on Wednesday he hoped it would become clear who had written the text about finding him another job. ‘This memo was not written, someone actually wrote it,’ he said. ‘There is no phantom typewriter around.’ The memo, he said, is an affront to the Dutch voter. Tensions Prime minister Mark Rutte had attempted to head off MPs demands that all documents relating to the talks so far be published, including emails and telephone messages, fearing the move would exacerbate political tensions.
Several ministers did have contact with Covid-infected persons. Somehow the testresults came in unrealisticly fast...Using government cars sometimes the drivers had to go for testing as well.
DJ There is growing pressure for new elections. Most likely the liberal party making a mess will then loose that election. Since "our" "government" is the only one NOT stopping church services while cases explode (Finland also not doing enough) there is "growing irritation" with some churches still welcoming hundreds of visitors each sunday...they now get police protection.
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. ~Albert Einstein
[url]https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2021/04/dutch-pm-survives-no-confidence-vote-but-is-seriously-damaged/[/url] or https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2021/04/dutch-pm-survives-no-confidence-vote-but-is-seriously-damaged/ ;Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte has narrowly survived a late night vote of no confidence after being accused of lying over suggestions that a CDA MP who is highly critical of the government be moved ‘elsewhere’. The complete opposition, including the fundamentalist SGP, voted for the motion, but this was not enough to force the caretaker prime minister to stand down. A second motion of censure against Rutte, for damaging public trust in government, was supported by almost everyone. ‘I have heard the message and taken it to heart,’ Rutte said, shortly after the vote. He said he would do his utmost to get back the confidence of parliament, and that at no point during the chaos had he considered resigning.
DJ The only reason mark(et) rutte can stay PM is because there is not yet an alternative...But politics in NL is bankrupt. And these "clowns" are supposed to get us out of a pandemic.
The growing social unrest is only growing harder-with also lots of variants spreading in NL. Politicians seem to be above any law...
MP's doing their job "seem to be the biggest problem" for "our" PM...
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. ~Albert Einstein
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