Summary of the article
In her interview with Trouw, the president of the Social Impact Team shows that she serves as a lips for OMT and an echo for Jaap van Dissel. Because what she’s really supposed to be doing in that role, she’s not doing it.
Read the full article: Jolande Sap, OMT echo pit
Reading time: 3 minutes
Jolande Sap gave an interview to Trouw. She is the president of the Social Impact Team. In Trouw she was heralded as “Jaap van Dissel’s counterpart”.
I read the interview, along with the new European data on hospital admissions of / with Corona. And then your stomach turns around again. He is not Jaap van Dissel’s counterpart, but his echoes him well.
Again over the top
These are the figures in different European countries of hospital admissions of / with Corona. The IC records show a similar pattern, but at a level 10 to 15 times lower.
In the Netherlands, there are now on average more than 100 patients with / due to Corona per day and 8 in ICU.
It is important to note that these patterns are more or less the same in different countries and that the two declines we see here occur without real measures.
Also in Germany important authorities (not Minister Lauterbach, of course) say that we have now entered the endemic phase. This is because almost all of us have been in contact with the virus and / or have created some form of protection in some other way. Furthermore, Omicron significantly less pathogenic than the previous mutation and it is now almost a year that no more pathogenic mutation has appeared. (As much as we are reminded over and over by experts that a new mutation has emerged somewhere, which should still lead to caution and take the next booster.)
The possibility that this winter we will mainly face the flu instead of the Corona is increasing. And how it will relate to a “normal” flu winter is still unknown. There are arguments to think it will be as heavy as 2015 or 2018, but also to think it will be lighter than that. But it doesn’t have to be a topic for which we need an OMT or a Social Impact Team.
Jolanda’s measures
After a brief introduction, the beginning of the interview reads:
“But be careful, experts warn: the virus cannot mutate and then hit hard. Also, we are still at the beginning of autumn, winter is yet to come. This is also why Sap was so concerned in the House of Representatives last month during the technical consultation. According to her, the cabinet is not sufficiently prepared for severe scenarios. “The toolbox is far from tidy,” she says now. ‘For example, because there is no clear plan for introducing the politically controversial crown pass. This pass is essential for much of the cultural sector to prevent closures if the number of infections increases “.
It is now also concerned about the lack of urgency to comply with the basic measures. “There needs to be more and better communication on this: go get your booster, wash your hands, test yourself in doubt and stay home if you are infected. And, above all, explain the importance of this “.
It is amazing that someone in his role as president of the Social Impact Team will deliver these texts in October 2022… .. I really don’t know where to start to respond to these texts. But my core of criticism is twofold:
- It indicates measures that we already knew in September 2021 would have no effect and would have been quite counterproductive. (And then mentions oa crown access pass and wash your hands). And he refuses to see that the course of the “waves” in the different countries is unrelated to the measures. Something you can see by looking at countries where measures have been abolished long before others.
- His role on the part of the Social Impact Team should have been to emphasize the fact that all kinds of measures have been taken with serious consequences for society in recent years. without good proof of effect.
For that Social Impact Team, the number 1 should have been the strict requirement that the measures that had been taken were still evaluated before they could be removed from the toolbox (or inserted entirely). Because if we don’t know what the effect of a measure is, but we know how serious the social impact is, then the Social Impact Team, if it really has to play a role, can in any case only say in the future that any measure should be strongly not recommended. Because in the absence of such assessments, the negative effect on society cannot be weighed against the effect of the measure.
Until this assessment is completed, the Social Impact Team cannot help but advise against any measures that may still be proposed. This was what Jolande Sap should have said. Over and over again when she is asked to be the team president.
Expressing herself in this way in interviews and with the Chamber of Deputies on measures (Corona access card, basic measures), Jolande Sap has disqualified herself as president of the Social Impact Team and / or has shown that this Team works only as an echo pit of the ‘OMT. It is to be hoped that this team, as well as the OMT for that matter, will not receive any serious requests for advice in the future.
