What do scientists say about five years of coronavirus?

Vivienne Matthies-Boon – professor of philosophical ethics and political philosophy

Whereas the corona pandemic began in the Netherlands five years ago with a great degree of solidarity, little remains of that now. This is due to a choice in government policy, says Vivienne Matthies-Boon, professor of Philosophical Ethics and Political Philosophy at Radboud University. ‘The Dutch government eventually opted for a COVID policy incorporating individual responsibility. And that created a politics of indifference and a breakdown of mutual understanding,’ she explains. A choice that particularly inconveniences long-term COVID-19 patients. ‘Our government didn’t launch a campaign informing the public about Long COVID, despite much already being known about the medical effects at that time. That decision has perpetuated the lack of understanding for this condition.’

Matthies-Boon emphasises that the stakes are high for Long COVID patients. ‘They are now excluded from society because they can’t risk getting infected again. Any reinfection increases the risk of all the long-term effects of Long COVID. So it would help them if wearing face masks was normalised in certain public places. Long COVID is not just a growing medical problem, but also a social and political issue.’ Read more…

Sander Chan – assistant professor environment

It was a surreal sight during the first lockdown: while everyone was stuck at home and there was less traffic, the air quality improved, especially in the cities. Could the pandemic be an opportunity for the climate, researcher and assistant professor of international environmental politics Sander Chan wondered. Together with fellow researchers, he investigated what happened to the climate ambitions of nearly 800 cities worldwide during the pandemic. Chan: ‘We discovered that the climate pledges of 80% of the cities held up or were even strengthened. More than two in five cities even increased their climate ambitions. So climate policies of cities proved quite resilient to this crisis.’

According to Chan, this is an important finding. ‘Because the number of crises is piling up in recent years, think of the energy crisis,’ he explains. ‘It was striking that cities in Africa and parts of Asia are often more ambitious than those in Europe or America, despite their worse financial situation. This is probably because they feel the impact of climate change much more strongly than we do. Health measures can also be climate measures and vice versa. When the knife cuts on several sides, it creates a huge push.'

Lotte Jensen – professor of Dutch Literary and Cultural History

Looking at history, we see that a society often reacts to disaster in the same way. One of the characteristics of the ‘prototypical course of a disaster’, as historian Lotte Jensen calls it, is that cracks appear in the sense of unity over time. ‘Who is to blame for this tragedy?’

In epidemics, it is also standard procedure for solidarity to begin to waver. So it was only to be expected that the moving applause for the healthcare workers during the corona crisis would quickly be followed by protests. ‘During the cholera epidemic in 1849, the Amsterdam funfair was cancelled for fear of the disease spreading. The fairground operators and pub owners revolted because they saw their profits go up in smoke. You saw exactly the same thing happen to hospitality entrepreneurs after the corona measures were imposed.'

What makes epidemics different from other disasters is that we prefer to forget about them. There is little heroic about looking back. Whereas a flood can actually lead to a positive self-image. ‘The battle with the water has claimed victims, but hey, we Dutch are the best dyke builders in the world. That is our narrative that we have ready to go, but for the Covid pandemic, that does not apply. It is not a period to be proud of.’

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