Gommers critical of relaxation: hope we learned from the summer | Inland

“We have seen this summer that the number of infections increases when people have more contact with each other. So I hope we have learned from the summer, because we are still entering the difficult winter period. The month of November and especially the month of December are known for the cold viruses. That will really be the critical period, so I would be really careful at the moment, ”says Gommers, who is also the permanent expert of the Outbreak Management Team (OMT) that advises the cabinet on measures against the outbreak.

He says that the OMT has not yet given advice to the cabinet about the easing, but that the cabinet can also take decisions without advice from the OMT.

Autumn break and alternative tests

According to Gommers, there are still some uncertainties in the figures he has seen about the infections. “We see that after October 13 the package of measures has an effect, but there have also been two weeks of autumn holidays and tests are now also being carried out in commercial test streets. We have no data on that. So there are still a number of uncertain factors. ”

Gommers also says he is not completely reassured about Pfizer’s vaccine. He spoke with the director of Pfizer Netherlands on Thursday and received more information. “What shocked me a bit is that there are 50 million vaccines made by Pfizer worldwide and in our country we could only help 10,000 people per month in the first few months. Yes, those are only very small numbers. ”

Mass production

“Pfizer can ramp up production during the year, I believe 1.3 billion vaccines by the end of the year,” he continues, “but it will take them a while. I was hoping that we would stick to the measures and that we would get a lot of vaccines in January. But if that is only for 10,000 people, then that is a drop in the ocean. Then we are far from there. ”

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