Number for doubters vaccination becomes national and can be called daily

The Vaccination Doubt Telephone will be given a new, national telephone number. From December 23, anyone with doubts and questions about taking a vaccine can call 088-7555777.

The telephone number was set up at the end of last month by internist Robin Peeters of Erasmus MC in Rotterdam. Now the university hospitals of Utrecht, Amsterdam, Nijmegen and Maastricht are joining the initiative. The new number should make the line more accessible.

Hundreds of phone calls

In recent weeks, Peeters saw that there was an enormous need for the information line. “We were impressed by the sheer number of calls we received,” he says in the NOS Radio 1 News. In the two mornings a week that the number was available, the call center employees received between 600 and 700 calls a morning.

Peeters states on the basis of conversations in the doctor’s office that the group of doubters among the unvaccinated is larger than people who are strongly against the vaccine. “But you never know whether those people will actually call.”

He thinks that a group has been insufficiently reached by the large-scale information campaign. “Some of the people still depend on other sources of information. There are also so many nonsense stories, that there is a need for independent advice.”

Because the other hospitals also participate in the number, the line can be opened daily. Peeters says it’s nice to be able to meet a need. “The more we can help people with a decision and the more we can limit the influx into hospitals, the better.”

Independent Doctor

According to him, the people who call can be divided into roughly three categories. In the first place, these are people who have questions about their own clinical picture. “For example, when someone regularly suffers from migraines and wonders if a vaccination makes it worse.” In addition, there are many questions about pregnancies and fertility in combination with the vaccine. In addition, many questions about side effects are asked.

These are specific questions that are hardly answered or not at all on government websites. According to Peeters, it is good that people can put their question directly to doctors and then do not have to call the government or other authorities. “The power of this phone is that people can ask their questions anonymously to an independent doctor.”

Don’t come across as coercive

The number will be available between 08.30 and 16.30. Specially trained medical students answer the questions people have. “There is always a specialist available,” says Peters. These can remove any doubts in the students “so that we can be sure that everyone gets the correct information”.

Incidentally, he emphasizes that no one is asked to be vaccinated at the end of a conversation, “because we don’t want to come across as coercive”. “Everyone has to make their own choice.” He says he regularly hears that people make an appointment for a shot after the phone call.

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