Care workers annoyed that RIVM linked nursing home Covid outbreaks to their education level

Care workers are angry at Jaap van Dissel, director of public health institute RIVM, about a statement he made linking coronavirus outbreaks in nursing homes to the care workers' level of education, the association for care workers and nurses V&VN said to RTL Nieuws.

In an interview with NOS on Saturday, Van Dissel was asked what went wrong in the nursing homes during the first wave of Covid-19 infections. At the peak of the first wave, over 800 nursing homes had at least one infected resident. 

"What we learned is that there are a lot of factors at play there, the education level of carers play a role, the situation in nursing homes," Van Dissel said to the broadcaster. "It is simply more complex than hanging it on a single measure. However much you would like to."

This statement is "a slap in the face of carers who stand ready day and night and under heavy pressure for vulnerable residents,' Marita de Kleijne, chairman of V&VN, said to RTL. The suggestion that infections were due to care workers' education level is "inappropriate, disrespectful, and to be ashamed of."

"We ourselves ran the greatest risk due to the policy pursued," De Kleijne said. "Because of the shortages of personal protective equipment, because the district and nursing homes were at the back of the queue for a long time in the distribution thereof. Because of the unsafe and unrealistic RIVM guidelines for the use of protective equipment and face masks."