THE HAGUE - The Dutch cabinet is making an urgent appeal to the islands. “The vaccines are approaching their expiration date. Please, use the vaccines that are still in the freezers!”
Outgoing Undersecretary Raymond Knops (Kingdom Relations) finds it 'worrying' that there are still many people on St. Maarten and St. Eustatius who do not want to be vaccinated. More than half of the residents on St. Eustatius do not show up.
Major concerns in the Dutch Parliament
The Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament is 'concerned' about the idea that vaccines will soon 'end up in the trash'. “It cannot be the case that vaccines will soon be out of date and have to be thrown away, while people here in the Netherlands and many other parts of the world are eager for a vaccine,” says Joba van den Berg (CDA).
Like D66, CDA and PvdA, the VVD also believes that the cabinet should therefore make an urgent appeal. “It is also important for the economy. The tourist season is just around the corner and the islands cannot be locked again," says VVD MP Aukje de Vries.
'Send the remaining vaccines to Suriname'
D66 wants the shipments of vaccines to be sent to Suriname if necessary. “There it is code black. The care there is collapsing and every day counts,” said Member of Parliament Jorien Wuite. “In other words: there are vaccines left on the Caribbean islands and an hour and a half flight away there is a crying shortage in Suriname. Transport should be possible, even if it is 10,000 vaccines.”
In any case, the cabinet wants to prevent the vaccines on the islands from having to be thrown away. “Although they are exclusively available to people there, they will not remain there indefinitely,” says Undersecretary Knops to the Second Chamber.
On the islands, all ages are allowed to get a shot
Due to the small scale, the Dutch cabinet decided 'immediately' to vaccinate everyone regardless of age on the islands as soon as possible. “Sometimes small-scale is an advantage,” says Knops. “We had said: as soon as there is vaccination, we will help the islands as soon as possible. Not the last, the first. I thought that was symbolic, but also very beautiful.”
The aim was to vaccinate everyone before June 1, because the hurricane season starts then. Outgoing Undersecretary Knops (CDA) thinks it is 'not solidarity' that large groups of residents do not use the vaccines from the Netherlands. "You also endanger public health if so few people are vaccinated."
In contrast to the Netherlands, even young people can be vaccinated. “Where in the Netherlands people aged 55 and under do not yet receive a vaccine, on the islands everything was ready to vaccinate. At the same time, people were waiting for that vaccine and people have even died who had not yet received the vaccine.”
Borders cannot remain closed
The islands are now slowly opening up to the outside world. To achieve herd immunity, so that the virus can no longer spread, at least two-thirds of the population must be vaccinated, according to scientists. If the measures are further relaxed, there is a risk that the many vaccine refusers will become seriously ill.
The outgoing cabinet agrees that the borders should open again soon. “It is not possible to keep an island like St. Eustatius closed for the length of days. Soon the whole world will be vaccinated, and things can get back to normal.”
“Despite all the campaigns and calls, the other people don't come,” says Knops. “When it comes to medical cases and seriously ill people, an island like St. Eustatius comes out of the corona crisis relatively unscathed. That creates a kind of false sense of security. It seems that there is therefore less awareness of vaccination there.”
Not all islands are doing as badly as St. Eustatius and St. Maarten. Ninety percent of the inhabitants on Saba have already been vaccinated. On Bonaire, seventy percent have had at least one shot. In Curaçao, that is seventy percent of the people. In the meantime, hospital admissions have fallen drastically.
The government of Sint Maarten is trying to get people to get vaccinated with campaigns. Anyone who is not vaccinated until after July 1 will have to pay for the shot.