Skip to main content
Home

Main navigation

  • Top stories
  • Health
  • Crime
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Tech
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Weird
  • 1-1-2
Image
Bruno Bruins, Mark Rutte, and Jaap van Dissel at a press conference introducing new rules regarding coronavirus.
Healthcare Minister Bruno Bruins, Prime Minister Mark Rutte, and RIVM Director Jaap van Dissel at a press conference introducing new rules regarding coronavirus. March 12, 2020 RVD
Health
Politics
Outbreak Management Team
OMT
Jaap van Dissel
Diederik Gommers
RIVM
Catshuis
Mark Rutte
Hugo de Joge
Coronavirus
Covid-19
Saturday, January 23, 2021 - 10:30
Share this:
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • linkedin
  • whatsapp
  • reddit

OMT members felt pressured by politicians and were ready to leave

Several members of the Outbreak Management Team (OMT) have considered resigning in the past year. The scientists in charge of advising the cabinet in the fight against the coronavirus felt pressured by politicians and that they could not work independently. This was reported by de Volkskrant. 

The political influence with which they struggled would mainly take place at informal cabinet meetings at the Catshuis, the Prime Minister’s official residence. OMT scientists and members of the cabinet would meet there to discuss the trajectory of the crisis. Measure discussed there, however, would often be leaked to the press in advance. 

According to some team members, the OMT often failed to implement stricter restrictions or were only able to push them through in hindsight. Microbiologist Jan Kluytmans and Alex Friedrich, as well as intensive care director Diederik Gommers, among others, considered leaving their positions due to these kinds of dilemmas. 

In the end, they did not because the chairman of the National Health Institute, Jaap van Dissel intervened. For example, he moved the OMT meetings from Mondays after the Catshuis consultations to the Fridays before. This would prevent politicians from giving “instructions.” According to the OMT members, this “removed the tension out of the air.” 
 

Follow us:

Latest stories

  • Two separate stabbing incidents in Groningen and Amsterdam
  • Covid-19 seven-day average up 17 percent for the week; hospitalizations total also rises
  • Experts: EU’s legal threats against AstraZeneca likely to end in failure
  • Corona measures violated at Forum for Democracy rally in Nijmegen
  • Kidnapped man saved during curfew check in Breda
  • Generous donations for hero dad who saved his children from burning house

Top Stories

  • Covid-19 seven-day average up 17 percent for the week; hospitalizations total also rises
  • Code yellow weather warning for most parts of The Netherlands due to fog
  • Suspect in Amsterdam fatal shooting arrested in Valencia, Spain
  • 4,993 news Covid-19 cases; seven-day average up 22 percent for the week
  • Debate season has started: These were the main points of the first political showdown
  • Parents in suspected infanticide case were 'convinced that the child was dead'

© 2012-2021 NLTimes.nl, All rights reserved.

Footer menu

  • Privacy
  • Contact