4 ms·

>> This is what Netherland has been doing, and it seems to be very effective. Schools have been partially open for 2.5 weeks now, and the numbers keep going dow

>> This is what Netherland has been doing, and it seems to be very effective. Schools have been partially open for 2.5 weeks now, and the numbers keep going down. As a Dutch person living abroad, I find it amazing how my fellow Dutch citizens keep finding ways of justifying their government's handling of the Covid crisis. Dutch schools were closed pretty quickly in the beginning of March, despite the advice of virus experts to keep them open: there were strong signs that children were not affected much by the virus. Now that the schools are reopening, as you are saying, it turns out that having the schools open does not increase spreading of the virus. I would say that this proves that the experts were right and the Dutch government wrong, and that the closing of the schools was a mistake. A costly mistake, both for the sake of the education of the children, and for their parents, many of which had big problems with combining their work and the daycare of their children.

JoeAltmaier 6y ago
Of course children in schools is a primary disease vector. Never mind the children don't suffer much; grandma at home could suffer grievously from a virus brought home from the petri-dish of the classroom. This is obvious, right?
misja111 6y ago
@JoeAltmaier I can't reply to your answer directly for some reason, but: to me it is not obvious at all that schools are a primary disease factor. Most kids show no symptoms when they are infected. AFAIK there is no proof yet that asymptomatic carriers of the COVID virus can contaminate others. And if they do, it might be much less than carriers with symptoms. This is not only my opinion, it was the opinion of Dutch virus experts as well at the time the decision was taken to close schools. That was a political decision, based on the fear that lived among people to send their kids to school. But instead of opinions it is better to talk about facts, and now that schools are reopening everywhere we have plenty of those. And the facts are showing that reopening the schools does not significantly increase the number infections.
mcv 6y ago
There were a lot of early assumptions about the virus. Some turned out to be true, others turned out to be false. For example, they were also saying that the virus would only spread if you had symptoms; that turned out to be totally false, and a big reason why it spread so much faster than everybody expected. I think erring on the side of caution was absolutely warranted. But I also think it's good that kids are going to school again. Compared to many other countries, I'm pretty happy with how the Dutch government is handling this.
- misja111 6y ago
  I agree that the Dutch government wasn't the very worst in the world with handling this. But it was definitely not in the better half. By metric of deaths/ population, we are now nr 9 in the world (counting high to low). And above us are Spain, Italy and San Marino who at least have the excuse that they were hit very early. The Dutch government had time to react. By metrics of economic loss The Netherlands are not doing great either. Germany, Switzerland, Denmark are amongst the countries that were able to reopen their economies before us. And Sweden left it pretty open all the time.

JoeAltmaier 6y ago

Of course children in schools is a primary disease vector. Never mind the children don't suffer much; grandma at home could suffer grievously from a virus brought home from the petri-dish of the classroom. This is obvious, right?

misja111 6y ago

@JoeAltmaier I can't reply to your answer directly for some reason, but: to me it is not obvious at all that schools are a primary disease factor. Most kids show no symptoms when they are infected. AFAIK there is no proof yet that asymptomatic carriers of the COVID virus can contaminate others. And if they do, it might be much less than carriers with symptoms. This is not only my opinion, it was the opinion of Dutch virus experts as well at the time the decision was taken to close schools. That was a political decision, based on the fear that lived among people to send their kids to school. But instead of opinions it is better to talk about facts, and now that schools are reopening everywhere we have plenty of those. And the facts are showing that reopening the schools does not significantly increase the number infections.

mcv 6y ago

There were a lot of early assumptions about the virus. Some turned out to be true, others turned out to be false. For example, they were also saying that the virus would only spread if you had symptoms; that turned out to be totally false, and a big reason why it spread so much faster than everybody expected. I think erring on the side of caution was absolutely warranted. But I also think it's good that kids are going to school again. Compared to many other countries, I'm pretty happy with how the Dutch government is handling this.

misja111 6y ago
I agree that the Dutch government wasn't the very worst in the world with handling this. But it was definitely not in the better half. By metric of deaths/ population, we are now nr 9 in the world (counting high to low). And above us are Spain, Italy and San Marino who at least have the excuse that they were hit very early. The Dutch government had time to react. By metrics of economic loss The Netherlands are not doing great either. Germany, Switzerland, Denmark are amongst the countries that were able to reopen their economies before us. And Sweden left it pretty open all the time.