State Secretary Van Ooijen wants child vaccination rate to go up

State Secretary Maarten van Ooijen (Public Health) is concerned about the declining vaccination rate among children. Not only in Zeeland but "throughout the Netherlands we see this", said van Ooijen before the weekly Council of Ministers meeting. "Unfortunately, this is a trend. Much more needs to be done to increase vaccination rates. According to Van Ooijen, "We are now in really high-risk percentages".

The GGD Zeeland is concerned about the low vaccination rate in the province, Omroep Zeeland reported on Friday. On average, this is less than 75 percent, and in some Zeeland municipalities even less than 70 percent. The RIVM (National Institute for Public Health and the Environment) aims to vaccinate 90 percent of children with its national vaccination program.

The GGD in Zeeland and the Zeeland municipalities should see what they can do to persuade people to have their children vaccinated, said Van Ooijen. He has no plans to do anything specifically for Zeeland from the ministry. "There are other areas that worry me, such as the Caribbean parts of the Netherlands," he said.

According to Van Ooijen, there is a "very bad trend in the Netherlands that we really need to do something about". There is an approach to this, but it needs to be strengthened in the coming years, said the outgoing State Secretary. He is thinking of offering vaccinations in more accessible places in the neighborhood, such as community centers or buses, instead of just in the GGD. If vaccinations are offered in more places, people will be more likely to realize that vaccination options are available, Van Ooijen reasons.

Disinformation about vaccinations is the main reason why people do not get vaccinated, the State Secretary explained. According to him, this has increased due to the coronavirus years and it is difficult to do anything about it.