Country: Netherlands
Continent: Europe (Western)
Governing Party:++ People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD)
Political affiliation: Left
Main crisis leaders:++ Jaap Van Dissel (Outbreak Management Team), Mark Butte (Prime Minister)
Status of country: Kingdom
Cases (at time of lockdown:* 1,135 (or possibly as high as 6,000)
Deaths (at time of lockdown) 1
Cases (at time of writing):** 8,264,406
Deaths (at time of writing): 22,496
Date of first lockdown: March 15
Duration: 22 days
Number of lockdowns (to date): 3
Reaction level+++: 50
Vaccine uptake (at time of writing): 69%
Score:*** 40
You would think a relatively forward-looking, progressive country as the Netherlands would have had an equally progressive reaction to the virus and lockdowns, wouldn’t you? Yeah. Read on. Two major blunders characterise Netherlands’ initial response to the virus. The first was that Schiphol Airport, one of the busiest in Europe, took no special precautions, citing the lack of direct flights from there to Wuhan, but somehow forgetting about connecting flights, and the second was the contention of their version of the CDC, RIVM, that the virus was “not highly contagious” and therefore posed little risk. Where they came to this conclusion is beyond me, but it certainly set the scene for the kind of deaths the Netherlands would see, probably the most since World War II. In this atmosphere of unconcern, people were allowed to head to Italy at the end of February for skiing holidays, so I expect I’ll find as I read on that many of the cases originated from there.
Four days later, February 26, the government, probably in the light of Italy’s Own escalating problems with the virus, thought better of it and advised - but did not prevent - people against going to the affected areas of Italy. The next day the Netherlands had its first case, and yes, as expected, it was a present from Italy. Numbers quickly rose, standing at 82 by March 5, more than double the previous day. The next day the Netherlands registered its first death, and cases were soon quadrupled. On March 13 flights began to be suspended to countries already on other no-fly lists, the likes of China, Iran, South Korea and, oh yeah, Italy. Although the statistics show that the Netherlands began their first lockdown two days later, I read that the Prime Minister was not doing this, and was instead trusting in herd immunity. Universities were closed but schools remained open (wait, what?) while cafes and restaurants, night clubs and, um, sex clubs had to close. Schools were eventually included, as well as childcare centres.
Hold on here, let’s back up a little. The no-fly order still allowed aircraft coming from the virus hot-spots to land if they had taken off before 18:00, when the announcement was made? How was that supposed to work? Anyone who had left Italy, Iran etc before 6pm was magically not infected, but anyone after that was? How ludicrous! About as crazy as waiting for enough people to get sick and die that immunity would be achieved. By the end of the month the country’s caseload had climbed to 10,000, one month after that the figure had tripled and the death total was at just over 3,500. The first of many demonstrations took place in June, though this one was not against Covid restrictions or vaccines, but was in support of those decrying the senseless death of American George Floyd. Nonetheless, over 5,000 people gathered with little consideration given to social distancing, a possible super-spreader event.
It would not be the last.
As I intimated in the introduction, the Netherlands was one of the countries in Europe where the harshest backlash erupted against the restrictions imposed by the government in an attempt to control the spread of Covid-19. The main bone of contention seemed to be the imposition of a curfew, from mid-January, prohibiting the presence of the public on the streets after 9pm. Violent protests broke out against this on January 21 in Eindhoven and Amsterdam, and a Covid-19 testing site was even set on fire. You have to wonder about the mentality of these people: how dare you try to ensure we’re safe? Take that! Burn, you bastard! The demonstrations - which quickly descended into rioting and looting - were helped along by right-wing and anti-lockdown groups and conspiracy theorists, with the aid of our good friend social media, and then of course the police responded, and all hell broke loose. Property was damaged, people injured, arrests made, special January sales deals were worked out without the troubling detail of money changing hands.
And the riots continued for the next several days, spilling over into other cities and districts as the whole anti-lockdown/anti-curfew/anti-everything movement grew and spread like the very virus its opponents were trying to protect them from. It should in fairness though be pointed out that not everyone took part in or supported these actions; in certain towns, groups of individuals, like in one, a sports team, came out to defend their city or towns and turn back the rioters, most of whom did not even come from there.