Nine of the ten largest corona fires are Christian congregations

In the Netherlands, nine of the ten largest corona fires are currently a Christian congregation. The RIVM confirms this after reporting by Trouw. Of the twenty municipalities with the most infections per hundred thousand inhabitants, fourteen are Christian.

The top 10 municipalities with the most infections per hundred thousand inhabitants between week 46 and week 50 consists of Urk, Bunschoten, Altena, Wierden, Woudenberg, Rhenen, Veenendaal, Vught, Scherpenzeel and Zaltbommel. The list also includes the municipality of Vught, which is not seen as Christian.

As a definition of a Christian municipality, the RIVM uses all municipalities where more than 20 percent of the people voted SGP or ChristenUnie in the last elections. That makes up 42.

Large families

Epidemiologist Susan van den Hof of the RIVM says in Trouw that she cannot give a clear reason why Christian municipalities are overrepresented in the list of hot spots, but does mention a number of possible explanations. One explanation is that the families are often much larger and people in these villages often work for the same company. That way, the virus can spread relatively quickly.

School students may also contribute to the high infection rate. “Pupils from reformational schools come together from different municipalities and their travel behavior can ensure a wide spread,” says Van den Hof in the newspaper.

Church attendance is not directly seen as a cause. “If everyone adheres to the measures, keeps their distance and does not continue to talk after the shift, I do not see an important risk factor”, says Van den Hof.

RIVM: do not stigmatize

The RIVM does not know how the infections are distributed within a municipality. “But it is plausible that the Christian communities are the explanatory factor, because otherwise the connection was not so clear,” says Van den Hof.

A spokesman for the RIVM says that he does not want to stigmatize the NOS. “But we do want to mention it. We have also done this before with other groups with a lot of infections, such as young people and people who came back from vacation.”

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