Will there be a second lockdown? Should my daughter get tested with every cold? Can I just camp? What do you think about all the conspiracy theories? No question seemed too complex or too obvious to Prime Minister Rutte and ‘corona minister’ De Jonge during the online question-and-answer session they held this afternoon.
They answered questions about the corona policy via Facebook and YouTube for an hour. Confidence in this has declined, the RIVM reported this week, and with this the cabinet seemed to want to regain something.
Dré
De Jonge started by saying that “a lot of interesting and also critical questions” had been received. “Maybe you should start right away with such a very critical question?” He bounced the ball to Rutte.
“This one is from Dré: why are you lying to everything and everyone about covid-19? Because that is all fake. Certainly this question will not be answered,” read the prime minister, who added with a laugh: “So we have it. right but put on top. “
Rutte contradicted that it is all fake. “You know Dré, I wish the virus didn’t exist, but it does exist. Unfortunately thousands of people have died. It’s a really serious problem.” Rutte also emphasized once again that the impact of corona “really cannot be compared” with a flu virus. “Much heavier.”
Waving spokesman
Not only the content of the cabinet’s messages was critically followed, but also the form. For example, the prime minister read a question whether he could prove that the session was live. “There is a colleague sitting here who now goes to the window to wave.” Whereupon his spokesman clearly waved in front of the camera from the window towards the Hofvijver.
That turned out to be inadequate, because Rutte felt compelled to provide evidence a little later. “Again someone who says it is not live … It is live. As proof of that: it is now 35 minutes past 1”, the prime minister said after checking the time on his phone call.
Extra measures
But most of the session was mainly a good opportunity to once again highlight the current spearheads. “Keep your distance and wash your hands”, “really only test in case of complaints”, “group immunity cannot be a goal” and “we focus on stamping out where necessary”.
In the light of the latter, De Jonger hinted that additional measures could be taken in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, because the infections are increasing the fastest there. “There is real cause for concern.”
We see the numbers increase, said De Jonge:
–
