{"id":171821,"date":"2024-09-26T13:37:59","date_gmt":"2024-09-26T11:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=171821"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:27:29","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:27:29","slug":"300-million-cut-from-infectious-disease-control-extreme-short-term-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2024\/09\/26\/300-million-cut-from-infectious-disease-control-extreme-short-term-thinking\/","title":{"rendered":"300 million cut from infectious disease control? \u2018Extreme short-term thinking\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virology professor Marion Koopmans fears that with the new government\u2019s substantial cuts to pandemic control, we\u2019re shooting ourselves in the foot. \u201cWith the money you save from preventing a single pandemic, you can invest a huge amount for a very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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While virologists are closely monitoring global developments around mpox and bird flu outbreaks, Health Minister Agema (PVV) has decided to make deep cuts to the budget for infectious disease control in the Netherlands. The structural cuts of up to \u20ac300 million are likely to mean the end of the National Infectious Disease Control Functionality (LIV), a crisis organisation that was set up specifically to ensure a rapid response to a future virus outbreak. Scientific research is also taking a hit. <\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n

What is your view of the cuts that have been announced?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone working in infectious disease control is deeply concerned. If the cuts wipe out the investments in pandemic preparedness that had been put in place, we\u2019ll be back where we were in 2020: underprepared. As well as the 300 million, there are also massive cuts to education and science.\u201d<\/p>\n

300 million euros is obviously a lot of money. It could be used to do a lot of useful things in other policy areas.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s extreme short-term thinking. It\u2019s about choosing a point on the horizon. We had one mega-flood with 1,500 deaths, the 1953 flood disaster. Since then we\u2019ve been a dyke-monitoring country, and we invest a billion euros in it every year. A whole research sector emerged; new knowledge is still being generated from it today. That\u2019s what is needed to prevent infectious disease outbreaks, too. With the money you save from preventing a single pandemic, you can invest a huge amount for a very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Did you expect us to learn more from Covid-19?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI may have been a bit naive. Shortly after 2020, I hoped we could have a conversation about the anthropocene (the current era, in which humans are dominant \u2013 ed.). The likelihood of virus outbreaks is increasing due to our impact on everything around us: deforestation, travel, international trade, climate change, livestock farms, and so on. I thought: after the pandemic, everyone has realised how badly things can go wrong. And we were relatively lucky, because it could have been a more serious infection, like Ebola. But unfortunately, we\u2019re still on an unsustainable path, and that creates risks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, good things have happened, too. For example, there\u2019s now more focus on pandemic preparedness. Like the WHO pandemic convention, for example (which is supposed to orchestrate a coordinated global response to outbreaks \u2013 ed.). At the same time, this is very much about the response: when an infection sweeps across the world, how do we detect it quickly? But the initial period, when people are falling ill and how that can be prevented, receives very little attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

What do you think of the response to the current outbreaks of mpox and bird flu?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see it in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Now that a new virus variant has emerged, things are really speeding up; it\u2019s even being transmitted through lorry drivers and bars. It\u2019s a little bit like the early days of HIV. HIV, of course, spread completely underground, because at the time no one knew of its existence. Thankfully, things are different now. There\u2019s an action plan, including a WHO call for millions of vaccines to be donated. But then some countries like the Netherlands say: we\u2019re not going to do that. Then I think: yes, of course that\u2019s an option, but did you really learn anything from the Covid-19 pandemic?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the current bird flu outbreak among cows in the US, I\u2019m astonished that we\u2019re not doing everything we can to stop that circulation. It\u2019s truly bizarre. If this virus leads to an epidemic in humans, we can\u2019t say we didn\u2019t see it coming.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018Before Covid-19, I had an excellent working relationship with Chinese scientists, but they don\u2019t dare say anything about possible zoonoses now, it\u2019s really become a taboo\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

China\u2019s wildlife trade could also become the cause of another pandemic. What is currently happening there to prevent zoonoses, infections that jump from animals to humans?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWho can say? I wouldn\u2019t know; China is closed off. The country does report mpox and bird flu outbreaks to the WHO, but what has changed in terms of prevention, I have no idea. Before Covid-19, I had an excellent working relationship with Chinese scientists, but they don\u2019t dare say anything about possible zoonoses now, it\u2019s really become a taboo. I find that political clash alarming, because we should be able to inform each other globally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Are there any positive developments?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cFortunately, yes, if you look at the wider picture. For example, Africa has set up its own CDC, Centres for Disease Control, kind of an African equivalent of our RIVM. As a result, there\u2019s now much greater control over mpox. The Africa CDC is now telling people exactly what\u2019s needed. Think ways to nurse people, testing capacity, training people who are good at source and contact tracing. So that\u2019s good. The tragedy, though, is that in many parts of Africa all of these things are still severely lacking, due to political situations such as civil wars.\u201d<\/p>\n

You lead the Pandemic & Disaster Preparedness Centre (PDPC), set up by Erasmus and TU Delft. What is the purpose of a research centre like this?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cTo give an example, we created the test that demonstrated the new variant of mpox. So as soon as a virus starts to spread, we can monitor it. Anyone can use that test. In addition, at the PDPC we\u2019re working on a major project to predict when we can expect mosquito-borne diseases in the Netherlands. Look at the West Nile virus. It\u2019s already circulating in birds here, but we\u2019re yet to see outbreaks in humans, unlike in the US, for example. So then the question is: what\u2019s the crucial trigger for an outbreak? Could it be the weather? If that\u2019s the case, we could develop a kind of weather warning, for example. That would be a big step towards prevention.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Are any other preventative measures needed?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMore and more wetlands and water buffers are emerging in our country. These are important for climate change resilience, but at the same time they attract mosquitoes. That \u2018mosquito awareness\u2019 is still a blind spot. We\u2019re currently looking at what can be done about it. It involves sitting down with people from very different professional fields. For example, I once spoke to someone from a water authority; they had never thought about mosquito risks. But then he said: oh, just tell us how long the land can be under water for. Then we\u2019ll just drain it sooner.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can also take mosquito prevention into account in urban environments, for example by building in ways that lower the risk of standing water. So you can have a lot of impact, particularly since urbanisation is dramatically increasing worldwide. It\u2019s a way of taking a big step towards prevention.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018You could say: let\u2019s become a model country for the agricultural transition. How cool would that be?\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

The National Zoonosis Action Plan was published this summer. How important is this plan for pandemic preparedness?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing the emergence of mpox and bird flu, which are both zoonotic diseases, the government asked a group of experts to make a list of things we can do to be more prepared. I wasn\u2019t one of those experts, by the way. Some of the recommendations from their report were incorporated into the Action Plan, in particular the ways of keeping a finger on the pulse: knowing what is circulating, for example among pigs. Strengthening mutual collaboration was also in the report. But the report also talked about how to fundamentally reduce the probability of outbreaks by looking at things like the scale of livestock farming. Unfortunately, that discussion hasn\u2019t yet been acted upon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why is that important?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOur environmental footprint is huge, and that\u2019s partly due to intensive livestock farming. You could say: let\u2019s become a model country for the agricultural transition. How cool would that be?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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