Via The Brussels Times: 'No plan would have been adequate' to deal with Covid-19.
Even if Belgium had been up to date on planning for an epidemic, it wouldn’t have been enough, according to Dr Piet Vanthemsche, co-chairman of the Economic Risk Management Group (ERMG) and former Influenza Commissioner.
While the pandemic plan drawn up in 2006 during the H5N1 flu epidemic should have been updated, it likely wouldn’t have been enough, Vanthemsche told the special committee of the House charged with examining Belgium’s management of the Covid-19 epidemic on Friday.
According to him, this plan could have served as a basis when the Covid-19 epidemic broke out, even though “no plan would have been adequate to deal with this pandemic.”
Vanthemsche was appointed inter-federal Influenza commissioner in 2005, in order to fight H5N1 influenza. He remained in this position until the summer of 2006, after drawing up a pandemic plan.
“This plan could have provided a basis for fighting the pandemic. Yes, there was a structure, but a plan is just a plan,” he said. “When you look at the epidemiological aspects (of Covid-19), no plan would have been really adequate. Any plan has to be corrected and adapted during a crisis.”
