Covid-19 inquiry ends: Next pandemic is likely to require same controversial measures

Nine weeks and 51 interviews later, public hearings into Dutch Covid-19 policy have concluded. During the process, PM Mark Rutte, former Health Minister Hugo de Jong, and former Justice Minister Fred Grapperhaus all said that they had no choice but to impose the controversial measures back then, including the curfew and the school closures. It is, therefore, unlikely that a future pandemic will produce different results, NU.nl reported.

During the last testimony on Thursday, Anja Schreijer, an infectious disease specialist, said the chance of another pandemic is, however, only growing. Schreijer cited climate change. “It is a fact that the next pandemic is coming. We just do not know when.”

The Cabinet’s main goal at the time was to prevent the health system from being overwhelmed, trying to prevent a situation when people who need a hospital placement cannot be guaranteed a bed. In order to make sure that case is prevented, the much-criticized measures, like the curfew, were “unavoidable” at the time, Rutte said. According to him, the alternative was to let more people die or to isolate vulnerable groups only. He added that he did not support either then and does not support the options now.

Rutte told the committee that before the next pandemic, a conversation about the needed measures will be needed. Then, if that does not happen, the same measures will be enacted.

The Covid-19 committee must now turn the observations from 51 public hearings and 87 closed preparatory interviews and more than a million documents into a report. Based on that report, recommendations will be released, which the Tweede Kamer had requested.