The man in the FP2 mask

Those of you that have been following me since longer time, know that I have always been very critical of the Dutch healthcare system. In this period seems therefore quite appropriate for me to share my foreigner observations on what I see happening in the healthcare arena.
It needs of course absolutely to be said that healthcare workers are here nothing short than heroes as much as anywhere else and maybe even more. And that is because trying to provide quality care in a system that measures quality not on the well being or survival of the patient(and carer) but on efficiency savings and supply management is really an heroic task.
How does this system keeps itself in stand than? Very simple, with the help of a very deeply vested concept in the Dutch society, men should be convinced that they don’t need what they can’t have.

Whether it is protective gear, masks, tests or intensive care beds you should only be wanting what you are allowed to have. This is of course the secret of happiness, if it works.

Unfortunately it did not work in most socialist countries (see what happened to the Soviet Union), it did not work in the ancient Roman Empire (bread and games lasted long but not forever) and it does not work with my children (carrots stopped feeling like a treat at age 4).

But what if what you want and cannot have is freedom?Freedom in spite of public (and personal) health risks?

This is a way more tricky because here is not the Soviet Union, the Roman Empire or my family. 

In a democracy people feel that freedom is not negotiable, but what if this is not true? What if either economic reasons or public health reasons (or any other accessory reason) determine how much freedom we are allowed to have? It is a slippery slope where there is no satisfactory answer and no winners and the Dutch government is not handling this debate neither better nor worse than any other country in Europe.

You might be surprised that even I do not have a decided opinion on this. The best that I could do was to order and proudly wear a sleek Amnesty International mask. Just to remind myself that public (and personal) health are basic human rights but so is freedom.