Questions about Corona

In the beginning of 2020 you could still ignore the coronavirus in the Netherlands, it felt so far away. Today that's not the case anymore. Corona is literally everywhere, and a lot has changed since the coronavirus spread so fast. Currently we are still in a lock-down in the Netherlands. It's crazy to look back on how quick this all happened, at the start of this year I was convinced I would be abroad by now. But here I am stuck at home. For a moment it felt like this virus ruined everything for me. Although, I was really looking forward to going to Sri Lanka with Sterre, I am glad we didn't get stuck there during the pandemic.

I must be honest, after 8 weeks in lock-down, I got really tired of the coronavirus news. It's hard to remember where we even talked about before corona. I stopped reading newspapers and watching the news on television. For the last couple of weeks I was just staying home and ignoring the whole coronavirus. But then we got this assignment from school to journal our way through the coronavirus pandemic. Following the news and hearing stories of experiences of others and write down your thoughts. Well that's the opposite of what I have been doing before.

I do want to say I have a lot of respect for all the world leaders out there, because it must be really hard to make certain decisions for your country. The hardest thing I find about this pandemic is to decide what is a good decision and what’s bad one, although it seems like no one really knows. All over social media you here different ways to deal with corona from different experts. I come from the province Friesland and the people are known to be very down to earth. Around me I hear a lot from people that ‘it’s just a fever’. I greatly appreciate that pulmonologists share information about their experiences with the coronavirus and indicate that it can be a really dangerous virus for elderly and the ones that are more vulnerable.

I came across a short film a Dutch pulmonologists, called David Prins, made and put online. He pointed out critical questions about the government policy around the coronavirus. Why isn’t the government promoting a healthy lifestyle? We know there is a relation between corona and obesities. Why doesn’t the government advertise for strengthening your immune system, cause we also know that a lot of people don’t get enough of the important vitamins in that benefice a strong immune system. The most important question he points out in my eyes is ‘Why do they push for a vaccine?’ Authorities say that major events and gatherings cannot take place until there is a vaccination, but making a vaccination takes a lot of time and testing. Even though a vaccination has been approved, the long-term effects are not yet known. He wonders if a vaccination will really be the only solution, and do we already know that well enough? He also points out in his video clip that Bill Gates is the second biggest funder of the WHO, but Bill Gates also owns companies that produce vaccinations. Prins also asks why doctors with a different vision are being blocked everywhere. In his video he doesn’t say he thinks that there is something else going on, but he does ask the critical questions.

I think it is good to ask critical questions, it keeps everyone sharp in this situation. As much as we want us to be able to resume normal life as soon as possible, it must be safe and I think it can only be done safe if decisions and statements are based on scientific research. And I think it’s wrong to say we need a vaccination before big events can take place again, when there is not enough evidence to back it up.