I'm a regular visitor to Holland and you know tension is high & things have got to a crucial point when the Dutch start doing this. Especially in Eindhoven - it's such a relaxed and friendly town.
I'm mixed on it all though.
I don't like the fairy tale/hoax tag attached to it and the Covid-deniers aren't helpful. It's real. I've personally known 3 people who has died from it (and not died from something else and Covid was mentioned on the death report like some conspiracies purport).
However, there has to be a balancing act.
I don't know why the whole word has to be shut down as a result and our liberties & freedoms removed for something that statistically speaking you have to be very unlucky to die from.
Why can't we have a compromise approach that the vulnerable (older folk/folk with severe illness) stick to these restrictions such as lockdown, isolating and get vaccinated and the rest of the population can get on with their life?
Different people in different sections of societies will be affected differently by Covid-19, so why do we have a one-size-fits-all blanket approach for the whole of our respective societies?
In my country Scotland our hospitality industry (bars and eateries) have been shut since the start of October and numbers have kept rising. So what's the point? businesses are getting ruined for no good reason.
Before the bars and eateries closed in early October they had strict operating protocols - stand at the door wait to be seated, sign in (for track and trace purposes), one way system to a seat, table service only, all tables at least 2 metres apart, mask on with entrance/exit and going to the toilet, card payments only, no TV or music on, windows open, regular deep cleans from professional companies.
How much more can they realistically do?
At the start I didn't mind these measures because it was all new to us and there was always going to be trial and error involved - but now we need to re-evaluate things and come up with a fairer system.