If corona becomes an annually recurring disease, we may have to adjust our habits. This is stated in a plan of the Association of Dutch Municipalities (VNG). Paul Depla is mayor of Breda and chairman of the Social Impact Corona Committee of the VNG. “It is necessary to look at a long-term approach to corona, because the virus will not just go away,” he says.
‘Learning to live with corona’
How can we ensure that we adapt society, the economy and healthcare in such a way that the risks of future corona waves can be absorbed more easily? The mayors make a proposal for the answer to that question in their plan. “We realize more and more that we have to learn to live with corona.”
But people on the street are not immediately enthusiastic about the mayors’ suggestions, as can be seen in the video below:
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In winter, the risk of a corona wave is greater. Why don’t we move the activities planned during that period? “If there is a wave, then we don’t have to think immediately about measures that have an effect on the education of our children,” says Depla.
To get used to
For example, can we move events that normally take place in the winter, such as Carnival, to the summer? Or organize the sports competitions in such a way that we mainly play them in the summer, when the virus is less spreading? “Yes, it will take some getting used to, because we’ve been doing it the way we do it now for a long time,” admits Depla.
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The changes will not be painless, the mayors realize. Because carnival in the summer? That’s not the tradition. “But the alternative will be that carnival is no longer certain for the coming years. What then weighs the most?”, Depla wonders.
less vulnerable
“Even with such adjustments, measures will be necessary from time to time, but the impact on society will then be less,” the mayors expect. “We are making ourselves immune, as it were, against the permanent and unpredictable presence of corona. Society will be less vulnerable to the corona measures that may be necessary from time to time.”
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Is such a change in behavior possible?
We posed this question to behavioral psychologist Sabine Janssen. If something is changed at once, it can count on resistance, she explains. “Then it feels like something is being taken away.” She explains that it can take years for a custom or tradition to change. “People have to feel the urgency before you can change something slowly. That can sometimes take years.”
Suppose major changes are imposed, such as moving carnival, then you have to take resistance into account.
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