You won’t see many people wearing face masks in the Netherlands. The only exception is on public transport; the Dutch are required to wear face masks on a nation wide basis on trains, trams and buses. This is because travellers cannot adhere to the 1.5m social distancing rule whilst confined on a train or bus. Mark Rutte, the Dutch Prime Minister, appears to have an aversion to inflicting face masks on the nation as a whole in any other setting. The question is why.
Face Masks in the Netherlands
Other European countries have made face masks compulsory in public places in order to combat the spread of the coronavirus. In surrounding countries, rules mean that people must wear face masks in supermarkets and restaurants. The Netherlands, however, hasn’t got on board.
The discussions about face masks on a national scale have been ongoing for months. Back in April, at the height of coronavirus infections in the Netherlands, Jaap van Dissel (Director of Centrum Infectieziektebestrijding at the RIVM) dismissed calls for face mask wearing in daily life. There was a shortage of medical masks and any discussion of widespread face mask wearing use was cut short. Not necessary for the Dutch general public.
However, authorities in Germany, France, Spain and Belgium saw it differently. They made face masks mandatory for those out and about in April.
Months later, other countries (such as the UK) have joined the list of face mask wearers. But the Netherlands is holding firmly on to its earlier stance: there is no proven added value in wearing face masks. Keeping to the basic rules that are already in place is more effective.
Face Masks in Amsterdam and Rotterdam
On 5 August, the mayors of Rotterdam and Amsterdam introduced the requirement to wear face masks in the busier parts of their cities*.
Mayors of two big cities tell us that we should wear face masks. The Prime Minister tells us we shouldn’t.
*Spoiler Alert: Not that this means that all people are actually wearing them. It would seem that calls to wear face masks are falling on deaf ears, and the authorities that have the power to dish out fines are turning a blind eye to those not adhering to the measures.
Why Don’t the Dutch Do Face Masks?
According to the RIVM, there is no scientific evidence that face masks play a significant role in curbing the spread of the virus. Social distancing and hand washing have proven to be more effective measures in the fight against the spread.
The message from Hugo de Jonge (Deputy PM and Health Minister) and the Prime Minister is if people wear face masks, they won’t adhere to social distancing.* Face masks give people a false sense of safety.
*Another Spoiler Alert: The news from our intrepid reporter on the ground is many people are not social distancing anyway.
Other mutterings are that face masks are a visual reminder that the coronavirus is still very much amongst us. This is certainly one of the reasons we have seen the introduction of face masks in Rotterdam and Amsterdam. During the press conference last week, Rutte spoke of the measure as being experimental, to see how face masks change behaviour.
In an Een Vandaag opinion poll at the end of July (yes, that seems long ago but it’s only actually a few weeks back) two in three people favoured the introduction of face mask measures inside in public spaces. For outside spaces the support went down to 37%.
The Dutch, it would seem, are not against the wearing of face masks in principle.
The World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) says this about the general public wearing face masks:
there has been limited evidence on their effectiveness and WHO does not recommend their widespread use among the public for control of COVID-19.
………in settings where physical distancing of at least 1 metre is not possible – such as on public transport, in shops or in other confined or crowded environments – WHO advises governments to encourage the general public to use non-medical fabric masks.
Advice from the WHO centered around the fact that face masks could protect others from infection only if the wearer was displaying symptoms. This didn’t take into account the high number of asymptomatic people there seems to be.
As the pandemic has evolved, there has been a shift from saying only health workers should wear (medical) masks to actively encouraging the more widespread use of (non-medical) masks in the general population.
But still no shift on wearing face masks in the Netherlands. Why?
The Dutch Are Responsible Adults
You see, the Dutch are responsible adults who can be trusted to adhere to social distancing rules. They can be trusted to keep washing their hands until the skin comes off, and sneeze and cough in their elbow.
That’s what we keep hearing from the mouth of the Dutch PM. Rutte has no intention of telling the Dutch people what they can and cannot do. Actually, let’s correct that. He is telling people what to do, but he’s not investing in any follow through for those not adhering to the rules.
As an example. If you visit a high risk country (oranje of rood) you are required to quarantine for 14 days on your return. If you have made your way on to the contact list of someone who has tested positive for the coronavirus, you are required to quarantine for 14 days. And if you don’t? Then, so be it. You don’t. Consequences? None.
There was an uncomfortable moment at the press conference last week when Hugo de Jonge was questioned on this topic. The Health Minister became rattled and essentially told the journalist to stop banging on about the fact that there are no consequences for not adhering to the rules.
A few days later he announced that he wanted to make changes to the law to ensure that people adhered to quarantine rules. Apparantly, many people are not cooperating with the contact tracing process. Get this, some are not behaving as responsible adults with the health of others in mind.
The spoiler alerts above already gave a clue that blindly trusting people to do the right thing may not be the best approach to a pandemic that threatens to hit us with a second (bigger?) wave of infections at some point in the looming near future.
Too Relaxed?
The Dutch approach to the pandemic has been relaxed. That’s probably putting it mildly. The basic premise has been to keep society, and therefore the economy, as open as possible, whilst protecting public health.
Rutte has enjoyed majority support for his handling of the coronavirus crisis. But that support is currently on a downward slide. There is increasing criticism of his handling of this particular phase of the crisis.
The PM and his deputy were both on holiday at the same time (not together, I hasten to add) whilst infection rates began accelerating. Press conferences stopped. Communication died.
Under pressure, they both came back early from holiday to address the nation. The nation watched with bated breath* to see how the PM was going to deal with the rising infection rate. He scolded the Dutch youth. He told them to steer clear of their grandparents if they insisted on partying. And he relayed that university introduction weeks would not take place in their usual form.
The overal message was take responsibility for your own actions and keep to the rules. See paragraph above for how that is working out for us. Oh and the Netherlands just earned a place on the UK’s naughty step – with travellers from the Netherlands now having to quarantine in the UK for 14 days upon arrival.
*Ok they didn’t. But we were expecting something. Anything.
What if You Do Wear a Face Mask?
If so many Dutch people are open to the idea of wearing a face mask, why don’t you see more face mask wearers out and about on the streets of the Netherlands? The answer to this may well be cultural.
If face masks are not the norm then the wearer finds themselves stigmatised. Or verbally abused. Or even physically attacked. (Don’t believe me? Spend a few minutes on Twitter).
If face masks are not the norm then the wearer sticks out like a sore thumb.
This from British/Dutch author Ben Coates:
When I visited a hospital a couple of weeks ago I wore a mask, as it seemed the sensible thing to do. I was amazed to find that of the dozens of other patients, doctors, nurses and visitors on site, almost no-one else was wearing one. “Why are you wearing that?!” the receptionist asked when I arrived, as if I’d walked in wearing a fluffy panda suit.
The Invisible Lockdown
And sticking your head up above the parapet is certainly not the Dutch way.
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