Riding through the full color bulb fields, it’s clear that spring has arrived. Today the Keukenhof announced that they will welcome this year 30.000 visitors. That’s 30.000 more than last year and 999.970 less than in 2019. The Dutch are doing an experiment with opening up society.
Perspective must be the most used word these days. Does this give perspective? The most successful countries dealing with covid-19 concentrate fully on vaccination. Why don’t we concentrate on experiments to vaccinate faster, more efficient and more effective? In the US it seems that they have a decentralised approach: if you want to have your vaccination, you make an appointment yourself. 40% is already vaccinated. Israel, the UK are more successful too. To Serbia you can book a flight as a foreigner to get your vaccin. We’re opening more vaccination streets but the one where I’m volunteering is running at 20% of it’s capacity.
I was impressed a year ago that our prime minister talked about an ‘intelligent lockdown’. He trusted the Dutch to stay home and do the right thing. Shops closed without being forced to do so. Now, after a year, the control and command (C2 in military terms), centralised approach is in full force. But hospitals are not used for vaccination, we don’t learn from successful countries, the centralised planning process is completely stuck, we stopped with the AstraZeneca vaccin without consulting the right specialists. It’s a mess.
But we do organise small scale experiments ‘to gain perspective’ for a few people that can celebrate, shout, hug, kiss as if nothing has happened. It feels strange that we Dutch are so headstrong. Or maybe pig-headed. I thought that we were flexible, entrepreneurial and keen to turn challenges into opportunities.