We are very concerned about the newly proposed permanent ‘corona law’ – the bill to legally anchor the corona measures in the Public Health Act (Wpg). That is why we sent the letter below to all members of the House of Representatives.
Dear Member of Parliament,
This week, the Cabinet’s plan for a change to the Public Health Act (Wpg) will be discussed in your House. As a collective of physicians (with more than 2,500 BIG-registered physicians and medical professionals), we are seriously concerned about this plan. The plan is premature and the proposed changes will unacceptably affect the physical privacy and integrity of healthy people, and the medical privacy of the doctor-patient relationship, in an unacceptable and unprecedented way in a democracy. We briefly explain these objections below.
- The bill is premature because there is no waiting for a thorough evaluation of the measures taken during the corona crisis, despite an urgent advice to this effect from the Advisory Board Toetsing Regulatory Pressure. Precisely in the case of major changes as proposed in this Bill, a thorough prior evaluation is absolutely necessary from the point of view of due care and the protection of fundamental rights. This is all the more the case because there is no longer an acute, or even a sub-acute crisis situation, which could serve as an excuse for skipping this phase. The effectiveness and proportionality of the measures deployed during the crisis has not been demonstrated at all and the currently available international research into the effect of non-medical interventions during the crisis rather shows the opposite. 1
- In terms of content, it is important that the bill, without any substantiation of the necessity, intervenes deeply in the privacy of the doctor-patient relationship by transferring the decision on the use of measures that seriously affect the privacy of healthy people to politics and removing it. with the doctor and the individual citizen. As a result, informed consent and “shared decision making”2 made impossible. In this way, doctors are also forced to cooperate with these measures, even if they do not consider it in the best interests of their patients. This conflicts with the doctor’s oath. It is also all the more pressing, because politicians are not medically trained and they will have to rely on experts, who in general cannot operate completely independently due to their position and in that situation gain much more power, in fact unchecked, than in a democracy. is acceptable. Apart from that, these experts would be structurally questioned scientifically, see the recent book by Prof. Dr. Ronald Meester.3 The danger of wrong decisions, with major medical and social damage, becomes life-threatening. The latter has unfortunately been sufficiently demonstrated in the past crisis, there is already sufficient evidence for this.
- Examples (not exhaustive) of measures for which there is insufficient or no evidence of effectiveness: distance measures, mouth caps, hygiene and protective measures, quarantine, lockdowns, curfew, mandatory testing.
We believe that without unequivocal scientific evidence for the positive effect of the measures taken on public health, these legislative changes should not be implemented.
We are happy to explain our positions to you and look forward to your contributions in the parliamentary debate.
Yours faithfully,
On behalf of the Board of the Doctors Collective
- https://www.jclinepi.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0895-4356%2821%2900087-1
- https://www.knmg.nl/advies-richtlijnen/ethische-toolkit/snel-wat-weten-1/medisch-ethische-vraagstukken-in-het-kort-1/informed-consent-6.htm
- Science as a new religion, Ten Have Publishers, 2022
How then?
We will have to learn to live with viruses and tackle the causes underlying this crisis. This is possible with a risk-driven policy with measures against corona that cause as little collateral damage as possible, where health is stimulated and in which freedom of choice and self-determination are paramount!
You can find our vision and source references on our site at www.artsencollectief.nl/hoedanwel – we also refer you to our letter that we sent you in January
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Disclaimer: The Doctors Collective is not responsible for the content on the mentioned pages of external parties to which reference is made. Sharing a page does not mean that the Doctors Collective shares all views. The Doctors Collective supports the gathering and sharing of (medical) information without censorship in order to stimulate an open conversation / scientific discussion.