Tag archieven: Coromameasures of the Dutch government

Coronameasures for fighting corona only, not as back door for the limitation of democratic rights/April 2020

CORONAMEASURES FOR FIGHTING CORONA ONLY, NOT AS A BACK DOOR FOR THE LIMITATION OF DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS/

Coronavirus, Corona, Virus, Pandemie, Infectie

COVID 19…..
https://covid19.who.int/

CORONAVIRUS, ANGEL OF DEATH


APRIL 2020Published by the Dutch newspaper NRC
See for publication of my Letter to the Editor by NRC
Under the title:
”Blijf alert als rechten worden ingeperkt””English translation:Stay alert when rights are curtailed”
https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2020/04/14/extreme-maatregelen-blijf-alert-als-rechten-worden-ingeperkt-a3996654

Dear Readers
And here is Astrid Essed again, with the English translation of my first Letter to the Editor piece about the Dutch Coronameasures
See my Letter to the Editor, as sent to a number of Dutch and Belgian newspapers
https://www.astridessed.nl/ingezonden-stuk-over-coronamaatregelen-in-nederland/

MAILTITLE:CORONAMAATREGELEN ALLEEN VOOR CORONABESTRIJDING, NIET ALS ACHTERDEURTJE VOOR BEPERKING DEMOCRATISCHE SPEELRUIMTE
ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE MAILTITLE:
CORONAMEASURES FOR FIGHTING CORONA ONLY, NOT AS A BACK DOOR FOR THE LIMITATION OF DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS  
The Letter to the Editor is a Wake Up Call regarding the Dutch coronameasures, a warning that the coronameasures, although absolutely necessary, must not be used as a backdoor to limit democratic freedoms in the sense that they must not used as a repressive measure in other cases, which have nothing to do with corona.Read for yourself.
The reason I have translated my Letter in English is at the request of someone I highly value for her scientific historical work and has become a good and valuable emailcontact.She can read Dutch, but to make it easier for her to grip the details I translated my Letter in English.This translation is also a gesture to my other English readers
Enjoy reading!
Stay healthy and safe
Astrid Essed

IN DUTCHMY LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Published by NRC
”Blijf alert als rechten worden ingeperkt”
https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2020/04/14/extreme-maatregelen-blijf-alert-als-rechten-worden-ingeperkt-a3996654

MAILTITLE:”CORONAMAATREGELEN ALLEEN VOOR CORONABESTRIJDING, NIET ALS ACHTERDEURTJE VOOR BEPERKING DEMOCRATISCHE SPEELRUIMTE”

Ingezonden Stuk
Geachte Redactie

Nu het Coronavirus als een spook door  Nederland, Europa en de wereld rondraast, heeft een aantal landen maatregelen genomen om het virus in te dammen, wat noodzakelijk is,Sommige maatregelen gaan ver, zoals in Frankrijk, waar politieagenten massaal zijn gemobiliseerd en checkpoints zijn ingesteld en zoals in een aantal landen, waar de noodtoestand is uitgeroepen..Ook Nederland heeft noodzakelijke maatregelen genomen, die minder ver gaan, en hopelijk vruchten afwerpen.Toch kleeft er een gevaar aan dit alles, niet voor  nu, maar mogelijk voor de toekomst.Want wat gebeurt er  met die beperkende maatregelen, als het Coronavirus is overwonnen?Wat als hier, in het kader van de coronacrisis, de noodtoestand wordt ingesteld wat betekent, speciale bevoegdheden, zoals veel meer politie en zelfs het leger op straat.Weinig mensen zullen daartegen dan bezwaar maken, maar speciale maatregelen plegen nog al eens te beklijven, ook als het niet meer noodzakelijk is.Een voorbeeld is Frankrijk, waar de noodtoestand in 2015 werd ingevoerdnaar aanleiding van aanslagen in november 2015.Twee jaar later werd die noodtoestand opgeheven, maar is grotendeels  omgezet in ruimere wetgeving, met meer bevoegdheden.Of Hongarije, waar premier Orban de coronamaatregelen heeft aangegrepen om praktisch een greep naar de macht te doen.Nu was Orban reeds lang een halve dictator en is Frankrijk veel autoritairder dan Nederland.Ik zeg dus niet, dat Nederland het Franse of Hongaarse voorbeeld zal volgen, maar toch is  van belang, ervoor te waken, dat na de coronacrisis geen maatregelen blijven hangen, die de democratische speelruimte beperken en de privacy verder schenden.Noch, dat de publieke opinie, afgeschrikt door de coronacrisis, het makkelijker aanvaardbaar vindt, als er in andere situaties opnieuw beperkende maatregelen worden genomen.Laten we daar als samenleving alert op blijven.

Astrid EssedAmsterdam
BIN ENGLISHMY LETTER TO THE EDITOR [WITH ADDITIONS]
Published by NRC”Blijf alert als rechten worden ingeperkt””English translation:Stay alert when rights are curtailed”
https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2020/04/14/extreme-maatregelen-blijf-alert-als-rechten-worden-ingeperkt-a3996654

MAIL TITLE:
CORONAMEASURES FOR FIGHTING CORONA ONLY, NOT AS A BACK DOOR FOR THE LIMITATION OF DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS

Letter to the Editor
Now that the Coronavirus is wandering like a ghost across the Netherlandfs, Europe and the world, a great number of countries have taken measures to fight the virus, which is necessary.Some measures are firm and go far, like in France, where police officers have been mobilized and checkpoints are set, as in a number of countries, where the state of emergency has been established.The Netherlands have taken also taken serious, less far going  measures, that hopefully will help.Yet there is some snake in the grass, not for now, but maybe in the future.Because what will happen with the coronameasures, when corona is defeated?What when here [in the Netherlands] the state of emergency is established, which means special authorizations like more police or even the army in the streets.Because of the necessity to fight corona, few people will object, but the problem is, that ”special measures” tend to remain in the political spectrum, even when there is no need for them anymore.One example is France, where in 2015 the state of emergency had been established in response to the terrorist attacks in november 2015.Two years later the state of emergency had been lifted, but was converted to broader legislation, with more authorizations.Another example is Hungary, where prime minister Orban has used the coronamesaures as a pretext to take a firmer hold of power

Now Orban always has been half of a dictator and France is far more authoritarian than the Netherlands.

.I don’t say, that the Netherlands will follow the French or Hungarian example, yet it is of the utmost importance to be watchful that after the coronacrisis no measures will continue to exist, that will limit the democratic space and violating the privacy rights.We must also be watchful that the public opinion, deterred by the coronacrisis, easier accepts, when in other situations also strict measures are taken.As a society we have the duty to remain alert on any limitations of democratic rights.

Astrid EssedAmsterdam
ADDITIONS

MACRON ANTI TERROR LAW REPLACES FRENCH STATE OF EMERGENCY

https://www.dw.com/en/macron-anti-terror-law-replaces-french-state-of-emergency/a-41191947

TEXT

President Emmanuel Macron’s signature anti-terror law has come into force after France’s two-year state of emergency ended on Wednesday. Critics say the new legislation bears many hallmarks of the emergency decree. 

Wednesday marks the final day of France’s state of emergency, imposed after terror  attacks in Paris in November 2015 that killed 139 people.

The emergency decree will be replaced by a new law which President Macron said gives authorities the powers they need to “deal with terrorist threats while preserving citizens’ rights.”

“A promise kept: we are ending the state of emergency on November 1 while reinforcing the security of our fellow citizens,” Emmanuel Macron wrote on Twitter.

“The terrorist threat remains great,”  Interior Minister Gerard Collomb (above, left) said after Macron signed the bill into law.

MPs amended the government draft of the bill so that almost all the new powers will expire automatically at the end of 2020.

Macron gets tough

Macron, elected in May, had said he wanted to allow the emergency provisions to expire and in his campaign cited a parliamentary report showing the expansion of police powers had produced ‘modest’ results since the Paris attacks.

But since coming to power Macron has changed his position, reflecting both the pressures felt by the French authorities after Islamist-related terror attacks have left 239 dead in the past two years as well as a creeping perception that Macron is a weak president.

The government now claims the enhanced police powers have helped prevent more than 30 attacks.

Under the state of emergency, 11 religious centers have been shuttered “for incitement to commit terrorist acts” and 41 individuals have been placed under house arrest for harboring extremist sympathies.

France is a main target for the “Islamic State” (IS) in the West, with 30 percent of attacks or foiled plots related to the extremist group, according to research published by the Paris-based Center for the Analysis of Terrorism.

Criticizm of the law

Critics say the law will leave the country in a permanent state of emergency. Rights groups, the radical left and the far-right National Front all argue the measures risk making emergency powers part of ordinary law.

The bill sparked a heated debate in the French parliament, with critics arguing that it will be used to persecute minorities, particularly Muslims, with impunity.

“France has become so addicted to the state of emergency that it is now injecting several of these abusive measures into ordinary law,” Human Rights Watch said before parliament backed the legislation.

Two UN experts also criticized the bill in October for its “vague wording,” which they said does not define terrorism nor the threats to national security sufficiently well. They also worried that Muslims may face “discriminatory repercussions.”

According to a poll by Le Figaro newspaper, 57 percent of the French public back the measures, although 62 percent agreed that it was a restriction of basic freedoms.

END OF ARTICLE 

THE GUARDIANHUNGARY PASSES LAW THAT WILL LET ORBAN RULE BY DECREE
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/30/hungary-jail-for-coronavirus-misinformation-viktor-orban

TEXT

Hungary’s parliament has passed a new set of coronavirus measures that includes jail terms for spreading misinformation and gives no clear time limit to a state of emergency that allows the nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orbán, to rule by decree.

Parliament voted by 137 to 53 to pass the measures on Monday afternoon, with the two-thirds majority enjoyed by Orbán’s Fidesz party enough to push them through in spite of opposition from other parties, which had demanded a time limit or sunset clause on the legislation.

The bill introduces jail terms of up to five years for intentionally spreading misinformation that hinders the government response to the pandemic, leading to fears that it could be used to censor or self-censor criticism of the government response.

As of Monday morning, Hungary had 447 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 15 deaths, although the real figures are likely to be higher. The country is under a partial lockdown, with people discouraged from going outside except for essential activities, and schools, restaurants and many shops closed.

Rights groups and government critics say that while it is clear coronavirus brings extraordinary challenges, checks and balances should be placed on the government response, especially given Orbán’s erosion of democratic norms during his 10 years in power. 

“This bill would create an indefinite and uncontrolled state of emergency and give Viktor Orbán and his government carte blanche to restrict human rights,” said Dávid Vig, Amnesty International’s Hungary director. “This is not the way to address the very real crisis that has been caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Hungary’s liberal opposition had said that although it had concerns over a number of elements of the law, it was willing to overlook them in the spirit of compromise as long as a sunset clause was introduced.

Of course we support the emergency situation. We agree with the government that there’s an emergency and that they have to do everything to combat it. We offered almost everything, but we asked for the time limit,” said Ágnes Vadai, an MP with the opposition Democratic Coalition party.

However, the ruling party had made it clear that it was not willing to back down over the sunset clause, she claimed. “I think from the very beginning, they didn’t want an agreement, because they have used the whole thing for political communication,” said Vadai.

Immediately after the vote, the senior Fidesz minister Katalin Novák wrote on Twitter: “The parliament authorized the government to continue fighting effectively against #Covid_19 … Regrettably, the opposition parties do not support this fight.” 

END OF ARTICLE

Reacties uitgeschakeld voor Coronameasures for fighting corona only, not as back door for the limitation of democratic rights/April 2020

Opgeslagen onder Divers

Corona trainbook [”Spoorboekje Corona] of the Dutch government/Playing Russian Roulette with human lives/May 2020

CORONA TRAINBOOK [”’SPOORBOEKJE CORONA”] OF THE DUTCH GOVERNMENT/PLAYING RUSSIAN ROULETTE WITH HUMAN LIVESMAY 2020

Coronavirus, Corona, Virus, Pandemie, Infectie

COVID 19…..
https://covid19.who.int/

CORONAVIRUS, ANGEL OF DEATH

SEE FOR ”SPOORBOEKJE CORONAMAATREGELEN”
https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/actueel/nieuws/2020/05/06/vermijd-drukte-houd-15-meter-afstand

Dear Readers
On this beautiful, unexpectedly warm sunday afternoon, another Good Deed from Astrid Essed!As you know, I had written a Letter to the Editor about the relaxation of the Dutch Coronameasures from 6 may
SEE
https://www.astridessed.nl/coronaspoorboekje-kabinet-russische-roulettespel-met-mensenlevens-ingezonden-stuk/

This Letter to the Editor was published by the Dutch paper ”De Telegraaf]
https://www.telegraaf.nl/watuzegt/427305715/versoepeling-is-onverantwoord
Now my Good Deed/HAHAHA
On the request of someone I highly appreciate for her excellent scientific historical work and who has become a valued emailcontact, I have translated this Letter to the Editor in English, with some additions and explanations about the Dutch situation.She can read Dutch, but I did this gesture to her so that she might get some details easier
Also I want to share this with my other English readers
Earlier I translated by recent Dutch Letter to the Editor about the Dutch Coronasituation
https://www.astridessed.nl/coronameasures-and-the-grapperhaus-case-coromameasures-of-the-dutch-government-are-stupid-unresponsible-and-dangerous/

You all stay safe and healthy
Astrid Essed

LETTER TO THE EDITORFIRST IN DUTCH, LATER IN ENGLISH, WITH ADDITIONS
ENJOY!

Ingezonden Stuk
Geachte Redactie,
Dat het kabinet ondanks het levensgevaarlijke karakter van het Coronavirus, dat vanaf 27 februari aan meer dan 5000 mensen het leven gekost heeft, reeds in een betrekkelijk snel stadium overgaat tot een mega versoepeling van de coronamaatregelen, is onverantwoordelijk en kortzichtig.Feitelijk is het Russische roulette spelen met de volksgezondheid.Want de nieuwe maatregelen vanaf 6 mei, aangekondigd in het ”coronaspoorboekje” liegen er niet om.Reeds was besloten, dat de basisscholen op 11 mei hun deuren zouden openen.Mijns inziens onverantwoord, want kinderen naar school betekent meer ouders op straat, belasting voor het Openbaar Vervoer en onzekerheid over het besmettingsrisico.Volgens deskundigen zijn kinderen minder besmettelijk naar anderen toe, maar dat wordt door een recent Duits onderzoek van viroloog Drosten bestreden, zonder dat het onderzoek in Nederland serieus is meegenomen in de afweging.Vanaf 11 mei mogen kappers hun deuren openen, vanaf 1 juni gaan de terassen en restaurants weer open, alsmede de bioscopen [30 mensen].Dat betekent meer mensen op straat, met toenemend besmettingsrisico.Ook is het houden van anderhalve meter afstand bij een kappersbehandeling of een rij-instructeur [wordt ook vrijgegeven] natuurlijk niet mogelijk. Mondkapjes zijn vanaf 1 juni verplicht in het openbaar vervoer, maar bieden een schijnveiligheid, omdat zij maar voor maximaal 20 procent risico-dekkend zijn.Leuk wordt dat, als het drukker wordt in het openbaar vervoer!Dat vakantieparken en dierentuinen vanaf 1 juli open worden gesteld, doet bij mij de vraag rijzen, of dit kabinet niet totaal de weg kwijt is.Waarom niet eerst het effect van de openstelling van de scholen op 11 mei afgewacht, in plaats van, [nog] niet gehinderd door veel kennis over dit virus en een mogelijke tweede heftigere golf, vrijwel alles open gooien?Dit gaat te snel, dit is onverantwoordelijk, hier wordt gespeeld met de veiligheid van mensen.Heropstarting van de economie?Belangrijk, maar  nogal moeilijk, als een groot deel van de bevolking hetzij ziek wordt, hetzij overlijdt.Zonder mensen, geen economie.Nu maar hopen, dat dit kabinet alsnog tot rede komt.
Astrid EssedAmsterdam 
LETTER TO THE EDITOR8 MAY 2020TITLE OF LETTER/MAIL:Relaxation of the coronmaeasures with the help of the ”coronaspoorboekje”[coronatrainbook] is a life threatening game of the government

[This Letter to the Editor has been publ;ished by the newspaper ”De Telegraaf”, see under this text]
Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor,
Given the life threatening character of the Coronavirus, that from 27 february has taken the lives of more than 5000 people, I think it is irresponsible and shortsighted, that the Dutch government is moving on to a mega relaxation of  the coronameasures.In fact the way the government is acting now is playing Russian Roulette with the public health.Because the new measures from 6 may, announced in the ”coronaspoorboekje” [corona trainbook] are clear and mean.Already there was decided to open the elementary schools from 11 may.I think that’s irresponsible, because children going back to school means more parents on the streets, a burden for the public transport and insecurity about the risk of contamination.According medical experts children are less contagious for others, but that has been contradicted by a recent German investigation by top virologist dr Drosten.Why his investigation didn’t play a role by the Dutch decision to re open the elementary schools?From 11 may barbershops are allowed to open again, and from 1 june also cafe’s and restaurants, as cinema’s [30 people]That means more people on the streets with an increasing risk on contamination.And of course social distancing [1,5 meter distance] isn’t possible at the barbershop and driving lessons [also opening again]From 1 june mouth masks are mandatory in the public transport, but [non medically mouth masks] offer only a false security, because they they cover the risk only for 20 percent.That can be fun, when the public transport becomes more crowded!The opening of holiday resorts and zoo’s raises the question, whether this government has lost its way completely.Why not first waiting for the effect of opening the schools on 11 may, before, not yet hindered by much knowledge about the spreading of the virus, as a possible second corona wave, opening nearly all sectors of social life?This is too fast, this is irresponsible, this is jeopardizing the safety of people.Restart of the economy?Important, but rather difficult, when a great number of the population gets ill, or dies.Without people, no economy.It is really to be hoped, that this government gets its senses back!
Astrid EssedAmsterdam
SEE FOR THE DR DROSTEN INVESTIGATION, UNDER THE DE TELEGRAAF LINK/ARTICLE
A
DE TELEGRAAF LINK/ARTICLE

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN PUBLISHED BY THE DUTCH NEWSPAPER ”DE TELEGRAAF” UNDER DE TITLE OF”VERSOEPELING IS ONVERANTWOORD”TRANSLATED IN ENGLISH
RELAXATION IS IRRESPONSIBLE”
SEE THE LINK TO THE DE TELEGRAAF ARTICLE
https://www.telegraaf.nl/watuzegt/427305715/versoepeling-is-onverantwoord
SEE THE [DUTCH] TEXT, WHICH IS THE SAME AS THE ABOVE DUTCH TEXT:
TELEGRAAFVERSOEPELING IS ONVERANTWOORD

08 mei 2020 in WAT U ZEGT

Dat het kabinet ondanks het levensgevaarlijke karakter van het Coronavirus, dat vanaf 27 februari aan meer dan 5000 mensen het leven gekost heeft, reeds in een betrekkelijk snel stadium overgaat tot een mega versoepeling van de coronamaatregelen, is volgens Astrid Essed onverstandig.  

Feitelijk is het Russische roulette spelen met de volksgezondheid. Want de nieuwe maatregelen vanaf 6 mei, aangekondigd in het ’coronaspoorboekje’ liegen er niet om.

Reeds was besloten, dat de basisscholen op 11 mei hun deuren zouden openen. Mijns inziens onverantwoord, want kinderen naar school betekent meer ouders op straat, belasting voor het Openbaar Vervoer en onzekerheid over het besmettingsrisico.

Volgens deskundigen zijn kinderen minder besmettelijk naar anderen toe, maar dat wordt door een recent Duits onderzoek van viroloog Drosten bestreden, zonder dat het onderzoek in Nederland serieus is meegenomen in de afweging.

Vanaf 11 mei mogen kappers hun deuren openen, vanaf 1 juni gaan de terassen en restaurants weer open, alsmede de bioscopen. Dat betekent meer mensen op straat en een toenemend besmettingsrisico.

Ook is het houden van anderhalve meter afstand bij een kappersbehandeling of een rij-instructeur natuurlijk niet mogelijk.

Mondkapjes zijn vanaf 1 juni verplicht in het openbaar vervoer, maar bieden een schijnveiligheid, omdat zij maar voor maximaal 20 procent risico-dekkend zijn. Leuk wordt dat, als het drukker wordt in het openbaar vervoer!

Dat vakantieparken en dierentuinen vanaf 1 juli open worden gesteld, doet bij mij de vraag rijzen, of dit kabinet niet totaal de weg kwijt is.

Waarom niet eerst het effect van de openstelling van de scholen op 11 mei afwachten, in plaats van vrijwel alles open te gooien?

Dit gaat te snel, hier wordt gespeeld met de veiligheid van mensen. Heropstarting van de economie is belangrijk, maar nogal moeilijk, als een groot deel van de bevolking hetzij ziek wordt, hetzij overlijdt. Zonder mensen, geen economie. Nu maar hopen, dat dit kabinet alsnog tot rede komt.

Astrid EssedAmsterdam 

B
ARTICLE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES AND THE STUDY OF DR DROSTEN

THE STUDY OF DR DROSTEN
https://zoonosen.charite.de/fileadmin/user_upload/microsites/m_cc05/virologie-ccm/dateien_upload/Weitere_Dateien/analysis-of-SARS-CoV-2-viral-load-by-patient-age.pdf

NEW STUDIES ADD TO EVIDENCE THAT CHILDREN MAY TRANSMIT THE CORONAVIRUS
New Studies Add to Evidence that Children May Transmit the Coronavirus
New Studies Add to Evidence that Children May Transmit the CoronavirusExperts said the new data suggest that cases could soar in many U.S. communities if schools reopen soon.

  • Experts said the new data suggest that cases could soar in many U.S. communities if schools reopen soon. 
    Among the most important unanswered questions about Covid-19 is this: What role do children play in keeping the pandemic going?Fewer children seem to get infected by the coronavirus than adults, and most of those who do have mild symptoms, if any. But do they pass the virus on to adults and continue the chain of transmission?The answer is key to deciding whether and when to reopen schools, a step that President Trump urged states to consider before the summer.
    Two new studies offer compelling evidence that children can transmit the virus. Neither proved it, but the evidence was strong enough to suggest that schools should be kept closed for now, many epidemiologists who were not involved in the research said.
    Many other countries, including Israel, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom have all either reopened schools or are considering doing so in the next few weeks.In some of those countries, the rate of community transmission is low enough to take the risk. But in others, including the United States, reopening schools may nudge the epidemic’s reproduction number — the number of new infections estimated to stem from a single case, commonly referred to as R0 — to dangerous levels, epidemiologists warned after reviewing the results from the new studies.

    In one study, published last week in the journal Science, a team analyzed data from two cities in China — Wuhan, where the virus first emerged, and Shanghai — and found that children were about a third as susceptible to coronavirus infection as adults were. But when schools were open, they found, children had about three times as many contacts as adults, and three times as many opportunities to become infected, essentially evening out their risk.Based on their data, the researchers estimated that closing schools is not enough on its own to stop an outbreak, but it can reduce the surge by about 40 to 60 percent and slow the epidemic’s course.“My simulation shows that yes, if you reopen the schools, you’ll see a big increase in the reproduction number, which is exactly what you don’t want,” said Marco Ajelli, a mathematical epidemiologist who did the work while at the Bruno Kessler Foundation in Trento, Italy.
    The second study, by a group of German researchers, was more straightforward. The team tested children and adults and found that children who test positive harbor just as much virus as adults do — sometimes more — and so, presumably, are just as infectious. 

    “Are any of these studies definitive? The answer is ‘No, of course not,’” said Jeffrey Shaman, an epidemiologist at Columbia University who was not involved in either study. But, he said, “to open schools because of some uninvestigated notion that children aren’t really involved in this, that would be a very foolish thing.”The German study was led by Christian Drosten, a virologist who has ascended to something like celebrity status in recent months for his candid and clear commentary on the pandemic. Dr. Drosten leads a large virology lab in Berlin that has tested about 60,000 people for the coronavirus. Consistent with other studies, he and his colleagues found many more infected adults than children.
    The team also analyzed a group of 47 infected children between ages 1 and 11. Fifteen of them had an underlying condition or were hospitalized, but the remaining were mostly free of symptoms. The children who were asymptomatic had viral loads that were just as high or higher than the symptomatic children or adults.“In this cloud of children, there are these few children that have a virus concentration that is sky-high,” Dr. Drosten said.He noted that there is a significant body of work suggesting that a person’s viral load tracks closely with their infectiousness. “So I’m a bit reluctant to happily recommend to politicians that we can now reopen day cares and schools.”
    Dr. Drosten said he posted his study on his lab’s website ahead of its peer review because of the ongoing discussion about schools in Germany.
    Many statisticians contacted him via Twitter suggesting one or another more sophisticated analysis. His team applied the suggestions, Dr. Drosten said, and even invited one of the statisticians to collaborate.“But the message of the paper is really unchanged by any type of more sophisticated statistical analysis,” he said. For the United States to even consider reopening schools, he said, “I think it’s way too early.”In the China study, the researchers created a contact matrix of 636 people in Wuhan and 557 people in Shanghai. They called each of these people and asked them to recall everyone they’d had contact with the day before the call.
    They defined a contact as either an in-person conversation involving three or more words or physical touch such as a handshake, and asked for the age of each contact as well as the relationship to the survey participant.Comparing the lockdown with a baseline survey from Shanghai in 2018, they found that the number of contacts during the lockdown decreased by about a factor of seven in Wuhan and eight in Shanghai.“There was a huge decrease in the number of contacts,” Dr. Ajelli said. “In both of those places, that explains why the epidemic came under control.” 
    The researchers also had access to a rich data set from Hunan province’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Officials in the province traced 7,000 contacts of 137 confirmed cases, observed them over 14 days and tested them for coronavirus infection. They had information not just for people who became ill, but for those who became infected and remained asymptomatic, and for anyone who remained virus-free.Data from hospitals or from households tend to focus only on people who are symptomatic or severely ill, Dr. Ajelli noted. “This kind of data is better.”

    The researchers stratified the data from these contacts by age and found that children between the ages of 0 and 14 years are about a third less susceptible to coronavirus infection than those ages 15 to 64, and adults 65 or older are more susceptible by about 50 percent.  ‘They also estimated that closing schools can lower the reproduction number — again, the estimate of the number of infections tied to a single case — by about 0.3; an epidemic starts to grow exponentially once this metric tops 1.In many parts of the United States, the number is already hovering around 0.8, Dr. Ajelli said. “If you’re so close to the threshold, an addition of 0.3 can be devastating.”However, some other experts noted that keeping schools closed indefinitely is not just impractical, but may do lasting harm to children.
    Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, said the decision to reopen schools cannot be made based solely on trying to prevent transmission.“I think we have to take a holistic view of the impact of school closures on kids and our families,” Dr. Nuzzo said. “I do worry at some point, the accumulated harms from the measures may exceed the harm to the kids from the virus.”
    E-learning approaches may temporarily provide children with a routine, “but any parent will tell you it’s not really learning,” she said. Children are known to backslide during the summer months, and adding several more months to that might permanently hurt them, and particularly those who are already struggling. 




    Children also need the social aspects of school, and for some children, home may not even be a safe place, she said.“I’m not saying we need to absolutely rip off the Band-aid and reopen schools tomorrow,” she said, “but we have to consider these other endpoints.”Dr. Nuzzo also pointed to a study in the Netherlands, conducted by the Dutch government, which concluded that “patients under 20 years play a much smaller role in the spread than adults and the elderly.”
    But other experts said that study was not well designed because it looked at household transmission. Unless the scientists deliberately tested everyone, they would have noticed and tested only more severe infections — which tend to be among adults, said Bill Hanage, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.“Assumptions that children are not involved in the epidemiology, because they do not have severe illness, are exactly the kind of assumption that you really, really need to question in the face of a pandemic,” Dr. Hanage said. “Because if it’s wrong, it has really pretty disastrous consequences.”
    A new study by the National Institutes of Health may help provide more information to guide decisions in the United States. The project, called Heros, will follow 6,000 people from 2,000 families and collect information on which children get infected with the virus and whether they pass it on to other family members.
    Study to determine incidence of novel coronavirus infection in U.S. chil…NIH-funded study also will ascertain percentage of infected children who develop COVID-19.

    The experts all agreed on one thing: that governments should hold active discussions on what reopening schools looks like. Students could be scheduled to come to school on different days to reduce the number of people in the building at one time, for example; desks could be placed six feet apart; and schools could avoid having students gather in large groups.Teachers with underlying health conditions or of advanced age should be allowed to opt out and given alternative jobs outside the classroom, if possible, Dr. Nuzzo said, and children with underlying conditions should continue to learn from home.The leaders of the two new studies, Dr. Drosten and Dr. Ajelli, were both more circumspect, saying their role is merely to provide the data that governments can use to make policies.“I’m somehow the bringer of the bad news but I can’t change the news,” Dr. Drosten said. “It’s in the data.”

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Coronameasures and the Grapperhaus Case/Coromameasures of the Dutch government are stupid, unresponsible and dangerous

CORONAMEASURES AND THE GRAPPERHAUS CASE/CORONAMEASURES OF THE DUTCH  GOVERNMENT ARE STUPID, UNRESPONSIBLE AND DANGEROUS/LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Coronavirus, Corona, Virus, Pandemie, Infectie

COVID 19…..
https://covid19.who.int/

ENGEL DES DOODS, HET CORONAVIRUS! 

ENGEL DES DOODS, HET CORONAVIRUS! 

CORONAVIRUS, ANGEL OF DEATH….

ENGEL DES DOODS, HET CORONAVIRUS! 

CORONAVIRUS, ANGEL OF DEATH….

ENGEL DES DOODS, HET CORONAVIRUS! 

CORONAVIRUS, ANGEL OF DEATH….

BEFORE:As you know, dear Readers, I wrote a Letter to the Editor about the Dutch coronameasures, which I sent to a number of Dutch and Belgian newspapers]
https://www.dewereldmorgen.be/community/coronamaatregelen-de-zaak-grapperhaus-en-de-levensgevaarlijke-onverantwoordelijkheid-van-het-nederlandse-kabinet-ingezonden-stuk/

At the request of someone I highly value for her excellent scientific historical work and who has become a valued and dear emailfriend [as I may say so], I sent her my Letter to the Editor.And although she can read Dutch well, I consider it as a special gesture to her,  to translate my Letter in English too.
And I wished to share it with you too.

Astrid Essed

HERE MY LETTER TO THE EDITOR
TITLE [As I have emailed it to the papers]
”CORONAMEASURES OF THE DUTCH  GOVERNMENT ARE STUPID, UNRESPONSIBLE AND DANGEROUS”
Letter to the Editor
The Roman philosopher and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero warned the Senate [aristocratic precursor of the contemporary parliaments] in a number of speeches against a [finally prevented] coup d’etat of co senator Lucius Sergius Catilina.Without having the audacity to compare myself with Cicero, by means of this Letter to the Editor I want to warn against the dangerous Corona policy of this government, that is becoming worse and worse, despite the treath of a second Corona wave.The relaxation of the Corona measures, the socalled Corona trainbook [”Coronaspoorboekje], announced on 6th of may which implied except for the opening of schools and barbershops, the opening of almost the whole Dutch social live like the cafe’s, cinema’s, etc, has turned to be highly dangerous,  because it led [especially in cafe’s] to more and more infections.And to make matters worse, lesser and lesser people followed the necessary coronarules, like social distancing and avoiding  crowded places.And what is the policy of this government regarding those negative developments?Instead of tighten reins more [for example a lockdown of cafe’s and other outbreaks of contamination [like for example cafe’s or perhaps cinema’s], this government does nothing else to declare that discotheques and nightclubs remain closed [that had to be added!] and  ”advising” people to follow the rules [that are violated increaslingly], giving ”advice” to go in quarantaine after visiting countries with ”code orange” [countries with great coronarisks] and an ”advice” to let yourself tested on corona.The political stupidity is, that an ”advice” need not to be followed, but a legal prohibition is binding.Why no mandatory testing at Schiphol Airport, when people return from risk countries and mandatory quarantaine [at Schiphol Airport] when tested positive on Covid 19?Why the GGD [Dutch Healthcare Centre] [1] has no centres where people are going in mandatory quarantaine when tested positive on Covid 19?Then there is a chance to avoid the second corona wave instead of stupid talk about ”own responsibility” and [a quote from prime minister Mark Rutte] ”I am no dictator”This isn’t a  joke!It concerns maybe thousands of people, who can lose their life in the second corona wave, also predicted by some virologists.And what also helps is, that ministers [here mr Grapperhaus, minister of Justice and Security] follow the very rules they have set, in stead being a cry baby in parliament. [2]A minister of substance would have done the right thing, namely resign.No wonder people increasingly don’t follow the coronarules, when ministers, who are responsible for maintaining the rules, don’t care about those rules at all!When this government doesn’t want a pandemia like the Spanish Flu [1918-1919, 38 thousand dead in the Netherlands] it is high time to take strict measures.To save public health and to prevent worse.

Astrid EssedAmsterdam 

P/S
NOTES

[1]
DUTCH HEALTH CARE CENTRE, THE GGD

GGDhttps://www.ggd.amsterdam.nl/english/
Not only in Amsterdam of course, the GGD has centres through the whole country

[2]

”In August 2020, Grapperhaus caused a public controversy when news media reported about the lack of social distancing at his own wedding amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands.[9]

WIKIPEDIAFERDINAND GRAPPERHAUS/CONTROVERSY
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Grapperhaus#Controversy

ORIGINAL SOURCE’
WIKIPEDIAFERDINAND GRAPPERHAUS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Grapperhaus

NL TIMES.NLJUSTICE MIN APOLOGIZES TO STAFF FOR BREAKING COVID RULES5 SEPTEMBER 2020
https://nltimes.nl/2020/09/05/justice-min-apologizes-staff-breaking-covid-rules

TEXT

After surviving a debate with very critical parliamentarians about him breaking social distancing rules at his wedding, Ferdinand Grapperhaus also wrote a letter to employees of the Ministry of Justice and Security, apologizing for not adhering to the rules that he as Justice Minister is responsible for enforcing.

“I also sent a letter around my department to the people, giving the same accountability as I did in parliament,” Grapperhaus said to newspaper AD. “I did not serve as an example and for that I am very sorry. That this should not have happened with me as Minister of Justice and Security either.”

During the parliamentary debate, which lasted hours on Wednesday night, parliament asked the Minister to ensure that not everyone who gets a fine for violating a coronavirus rule gets that mentioned on their criminal record. Grapperhaus said that he would start working on that. Though he added that people who deliberately and aggressively break the coronavirus rules, such as by spitting in someone’s face for example, should still get that on their criminal record. 

NL TIMES

EMOTIONAL JUSTIC MIN AGAIN APOLOGIZING FOR SOCIAL DISTANCE BLUNDER; SURVIVES DEBATE

3 SEPTEMBER 2020

https://nltimes.nl/2020/09/03/emotional-justice-min-apologizes-social-distancing-blunder-survives-debate

A visibly emotional Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus of Justice and Security again apologized for not adhering to coronavirus rules at his wedding during a parliamentary debate on the matter on Wednesday. Despite the criticism against him, he finds he has enough credibility to enforce the coronavirus policy. He did say that he would look into whether coronavirus fines could be kept off of people’s criminal records in some cases.

Photos from the Grapperhaus’ wedding show him not only standing too close to his guests, but also shaking hands and hugging people. “During my wedding, compliance with the coronavirus measures went wrong. I have expressed my regret about this and I am doing that again today to the parliamentarians,” Grapperhaus said. “I didn’t do it right myself. I got caught up in the events of that day.” The Minister was visibly overcome with emotions and had to pause. “We talked about it at home. We said to each other: if only we had done it just the two of us together.”

Parliamentarians from the entire political spectrum raised doubts about whether Grapperhaus could still credibly enforce the coronavirus policy. He believes that he can. “Let one thing be clear: I fully support the corona policy that we have agreed on and implemented with the cabinet and I will continue to propagate that in the future.”

MPs also asked him how citizens should accept fines that go onto their criminal records for breaking the same rules he did. Grapperhaus said that he would look into whether these fines can be kept off of people’s criminal records in some cases. But he wants to keep that note on the criminal record for people who spit in the face of others, are aggressive, and deliberately flout the corona rules, he said.

When asked about waiving the fines, Grapperhaus said that was absolutely impossible. The decision of whether a fine was justified or not lies with the Public Prosecution Service and the courts, and the Minister has no businesses interfering with that, he said. 

As Minister of Justice and Security, Grapperhaus was responsible for enforcing the coronavirus rules. Opposition parties called it scandalous that he then broke the two most basic rules in place to curb the spread of this virus – staying 1.5 meters apart, and not shaking hands. “Making a mistake and standing too close to someone else can happen to us all,” GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver said before the debate started. “But shaking hands, you just don’t do it, especially as Minister of Justice. It was the first agreement we made in March.”

The first photo, showing Grapperhaus standing in a group of people, surfaced last week and caused an uproar in the media. A big part of the criticism against Grapperhaus was that he broke the rules, despite the fact that he always stressed the importance of adhering to them and even lashed out at Netherlands residents who did not do so, calling them “anti-social” among other things. 

The union for enforcement officers NBB, whose job it is to fine citizens for breaking the same rules Grapperhaus did, raised this same issue. “The understanding for the corona fine is getting smaller. And the enforcer is noticing this. It is complicated to explain why people can get a corona fine if the responsible Minister himself does not comply with the rules,” NBB chairman Richard Gerrits said to NOS earlier this week.

Grapperhaus eventually apologized, saying that he feels especially bad given he has to set an example as a Minister. He paid 780 euros – twice the amount of the fine for not adhering to the coronavirus rules – to the Red Cross, but was not officially fined. Then on Tuesday, more photos surfaced, showing Grapperhaus shaking hands with people and embracing his mother-in-law.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte expressed support for Grapperhaus on Friday, saying that him violating the coronavirus rules at his wedding does not affect his credibility as far as the Prime Minister is concerned. “Credibility is related to facing up when something is not going well. He is doing that,” the Prime Minister said. 

During a press conference on Tuesday, Rutte did not specifically mention Grapperhaus, but he did talk about social distancing and fines for not adhering to the rules. “The 1.5 meters is always necessary everywhere,” Rutte said about social distancing. “Sometimes difficult to maintain. Sometimes you’ll bump into someone on the street. I really get it. And again, we’re not all perfect. And it is not the case that the police immediately impose fines, it does not work that way. Relatively few fines are imposed.”

Reacties uitgeschakeld voor Coronameasures and the Grapperhaus Case/Coromameasures of the Dutch government are stupid, unresponsible and dangerous

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