news hour
–
With the monkey pox virus spreading further, the Pride Amsterdam event poses an additional risk. That says former RIVM director Roel Coutinho in news hour† “I think you should think very carefully about whether you should do this. And whether you can still make it clear to people what is going on.”
–
The number of monkey pox cases in Europe has tripled in the past two weeks. The speed at which the virus is spreading is also increasing rapidly in the Netherlands. Monkeypox has so far been diagnosed in 352 people in the Netherlands, the RIVM reports.
–
Anyone can contract the monkeypox virus, but at the moment the virus is mainly spreading among men who have many varying sexual contacts with other men. Infections occur through skin-to-skin contact and presumably also through the air, not just during sex.
–
The Pride in Amsterdam will start at the end of the month. Coutinho: “I think you have to realize that events like this carry an extra risk. And that’s not what you want.”
–
Coutinho will not say whether or not the event should go ahead, because he is not about that. “It’s not that you can’t care about it and say: it’ll be fine. I think you have to see how it develops in the coming weeks. But it is definitely an extra risk. And we want that dissemination.”
–
Vaccines
He also believes that careful thought should be given to making the vaccines that we already have available. “We have 100,000 doses. They were made for biological warfare, we bought them because of the risk of smallpox.”
–
We think that vaccine provides protection, but we don’t know for sure, Coutinho explains. “Because that has not been fully tested. But it is likely that it does. That is actually a happy coincidence. Many other countries have nothing, so we are good in that regard.”
–
But the decision to make those vaccines available has not yet been made. “I think it’s important to do that quickly, because you shouldn’t underestimate it. You’re talking about a smallpox virus.”
–
Watch the conversation in Nieuwsuur here:
—
