Would you like to inspect the original subtitles? These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated:
1
00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000
Downloaded from
YTS.MX
2
00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000
Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX
3
00:00:41,320 --> 00:00:42,800
Camera is running.
4
00:01:17,520 --> 00:01:22,200
I started my search
after Prime Minister Rutte's speech...
5
00:01:22,320 --> 00:01:26,720
about herd immunity and what's going on
around coronavirus.
6
00:01:26,840 --> 00:01:34,200
Between mid-March and now,
which is September...
7
00:01:34,320 --> 00:01:40,880
I've spent about 1,000 hours myself
researching the coronavirus problem.
8
00:01:42,160 --> 00:01:48,640
And many others with me, so overall
we've done about 5,000 hours of research.
9
00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:56,400
It was all about risk: who's going to
get sick and who's going to die?
10
00:01:56,520 --> 00:01:59,520
In business you always work with risk...
11
00:01:59,640 --> 00:02:03,680
so the first thing I looked at was:
What are the facts here?
12
00:02:03,800 --> 00:02:07,840
How many people will die
and how many will fall victim...
13
00:02:09,040 --> 00:02:10,440
to COVID-19?
14
00:02:14,320 --> 00:02:15,720
Good evening.
15
00:02:16,840 --> 00:02:20,880
Our country has been gripped
by coronavirus.
16
00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:27,360
Ours and the rest of the world. My message
to you tonight isn't an easy one.
17
00:02:27,480 --> 00:02:32,840
The reality is that in the coming time
a large part of the Dutch population...
18
00:02:32,960 --> 00:02:35,000
will be infected with the virus.
19
00:02:38,960 --> 00:02:40,840
What on earth's going on here?
20
00:02:43,120 --> 00:02:46,920
We're also interested
in the number of people...
21
00:02:47,040 --> 00:02:51,600
whose immunity shows signs...
22
00:02:51,720 --> 00:02:57,920
that it has been in contact
with the new coronavirus.
23
00:02:58,040 --> 00:03:02,640
You can see that represented here
for the Sanquin Research data.
24
00:03:02,760 --> 00:03:07,040
It's also being done
for the RIVM's PIENTER Study.
25
00:03:13,320 --> 00:03:18,120
Why is the RIVM national public health
institute telling us half-truths?
26
00:03:18,240 --> 00:03:21,360
It's just half-science.
27
00:03:21,480 --> 00:03:24,360
I don't understand,
it's not right.
28
00:03:25,520 --> 00:03:29,720
I'm a citizen and I want very much
to trust the government.
29
00:03:29,840 --> 00:03:35,040
I want to believe that what I read in
the media is correct and isn't censored.
30
00:03:36,560 --> 00:03:42,280
But when they tell so many lies and
half-truths, what am I supposed to think?
31
00:03:44,240 --> 00:03:48,800
Why pursue this policy when
there are many more non-COVID victims...
32
00:03:48,920 --> 00:03:50,720
than COVID victims?
33
00:03:52,760 --> 00:03:55,480
Is this really about our public health?
34
00:04:04,720 --> 00:04:10,640
Clearly the pharmaceutical industry's
business model is to make profit.
35
00:04:10,760 --> 00:04:16,480
As much profit as possible.
It's got nothing to do with healthcare.
36
00:04:16,600 --> 00:04:23,240
If it did, they would have made sure
to produce good medicines.
37
00:04:23,360 --> 00:04:29,080
The new products they've put
on the market are generally poison.
38
00:04:29,200 --> 00:04:30,800
Nothing more.
39
00:04:35,280 --> 00:04:39,320
If you look closely
at the characteristics of the virus...
40
00:04:39,440 --> 00:04:45,600
the measures taken and consequences are
out of proportion with the virus itself.
41
00:04:47,360 --> 00:04:52,520
This is certainly a time full of danger,
fear, change and transition.
42
00:04:52,640 --> 00:04:58,960
The virus triggered this,
but the consequences are much greater.
43
00:04:59,080 --> 00:05:02,600
That's what we need to look at.
They're drastic.
44
00:05:15,920 --> 00:05:22,560
When people talk about COVID-19
it's positioned more or less as an enemy.
45
00:05:22,680 --> 00:05:26,160
At first when we didn't know
what was coming, they said:
46
00:05:26,280 --> 00:05:30,400
This is war.
We have to fight it, eliminate it.
47
00:05:31,520 --> 00:05:35,040
I thought: Hm, what is this virus?
I didn't know either.
48
00:05:36,720 --> 00:05:39,880
Viruses play a key role in nature.
49
00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:42,760
If you look at the timeline...
50
00:05:42,880 --> 00:05:47,200
viruses and bacteria have been around
far longer than homo sapiens.
51
00:05:48,480 --> 00:05:54,000
Looking at how we're built,
in terms of our immune system...
52
00:05:54,120 --> 00:05:58,880
it becomes clear how incredibly well
they work together.
53
00:05:59,000 --> 00:06:04,800
In nature it's all about collaboration:
between cells, bacteria, viruses.
54
00:06:04,920 --> 00:06:10,080
Yes, collaboration
is one of the key processes in nature.
55
00:06:11,080 --> 00:06:14,720
That collaboration arose
in the process of evolution.
56
00:06:14,840 --> 00:06:21,840
Apparently it was a better way of
organising than the other options we had.
57
00:06:24,040 --> 00:06:28,080
How do you see the timeline?
Other organisms are much older.
58
00:06:28,200 --> 00:06:33,000
Now humans are here. I sometimes feel
that we want to be at the top...
59
00:06:33,120 --> 00:06:35,400
and to be able to engineer humankind.
60
00:06:35,520 --> 00:06:38,920
You see it with the virus,
'We're going to wipe it out.'
61
00:06:39,040 --> 00:06:43,440
Is that even possible?
-If we really want to, it's possible.
62
00:06:43,560 --> 00:06:49,840
It's hard with a virus. It's much easier
to wipe out pandas or rhinos or tigers.
63
00:06:49,960 --> 00:06:56,680
Viruses are so closely linked to us
that they keep adapting and evolving.
64
00:06:56,800 --> 00:07:01,600
The flu virus is a good example.
For the flu jabs we have now...
65
00:07:01,720 --> 00:07:06,240
we have to guess what flu virus is coming
but it's often quite different.
66
00:07:06,360 --> 00:07:10,280
After so many centuries
we still can't predict what it will do.
67
00:07:10,400 --> 00:07:13,160
Viruses are often too fast for us.
68
00:07:14,480 --> 00:07:17,120
Viruses survive because they mutate.
69
00:07:17,240 --> 00:07:22,360
That's why it's so hard to develop
a vaccine or medicine or a treatment.
70
00:07:23,400 --> 00:07:26,560
You don't know which direction it will go.
71
00:07:26,680 --> 00:07:30,560
You see that with flu vaccines.
You think: Hey, it works.
72
00:07:30,680 --> 00:07:32,880
But next time, it's changed again.
73
00:07:38,600 --> 00:07:43,440
It's great, a really big container
has arrived from India. So...
74
00:07:43,560 --> 00:07:47,200
Sports bags again?
-Well, it was a very big one.
75
00:07:47,320 --> 00:07:48,880
Today? No.
76
00:07:50,920 --> 00:07:56,440
As part of the citizens' initiative
I wanted to find out all I could about it.
77
00:07:56,560 --> 00:08:01,160
This is the coronavirus bench
where we collected everything...
78
00:08:01,280 --> 00:08:06,840
to quickly find out all we could
about coronavirus and what's going on.
79
00:08:12,320 --> 00:08:15,240
I'd already read a lot of books.
80
00:08:15,360 --> 00:08:21,480
Especially about scientific knowledge
from the past ten years...
81
00:08:21,600 --> 00:08:26,200
in a very broad sense.
Everyone knows Yuval Harari.
82
00:08:32,160 --> 00:08:39,040
If you look at this, this was how
it all started. The panic about control.
83
00:08:39,160 --> 00:08:45,120
After a while you saw that the collateral
damage was much worse. The hospitals...
84
00:08:45,240 --> 00:08:49,240
talked about 300,000 procedures
that had been postponed.
85
00:08:49,360 --> 00:08:54,160
And it caused huge financial difficulties
for hospitals.
86
00:08:56,600 --> 00:08:59,920
You could see in one article
that on the one hand...
87
00:09:00,040 --> 00:09:06,120
we were trying to save life years
by getting coronavirus under control...
88
00:09:06,240 --> 00:09:12,240
while on the other hand the scales were
tipping too far in a very negative way.
89
00:09:12,360 --> 00:09:16,800
Economically, but also for healthcare
and for society.
90
00:09:16,920 --> 00:09:18,680
Because this is derailing.
91
00:09:21,840 --> 00:09:28,400
I'm not against... I'm not an anti-vaxxer,
I'm not on the left or right politically.
92
00:09:28,520 --> 00:09:33,280
I have no interest in this,
no financial interest, not at all.
93
00:09:33,400 --> 00:09:37,040
I was looking primarily
at my children's future.
94
00:09:37,160 --> 00:09:41,360
If you build up lots of debt
you know someone will have to pay.
95
00:09:41,480 --> 00:09:45,760
I thought: This isn't going to work.
-I'll go move the car.
96
00:09:47,240 --> 00:09:51,480
I liked it at first when I started.
97
00:09:51,600 --> 00:09:53,440
Do you want something to eat?
98
00:09:53,560 --> 00:09:57,880
Ultimately, the government
is supposed to be there for society.
99
00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:02,680
The government can say:
We've got all these support measures.
100
00:10:02,800 --> 00:10:04,760
But we'll have to repay it all.
101
00:10:06,560 --> 00:10:13,560
In the end the citizens and business
owners will have to pay for it in taxes.
102
00:10:14,640 --> 00:10:18,240
Hey Feline, do you know Wim or not?
-No.
103
00:10:18,360 --> 00:10:19,760
This is Feline.
104
00:10:21,160 --> 00:10:24,320
I got this from you, Erwin.
-Yes.
105
00:10:25,360 --> 00:10:28,040
As an international entrepreneur...
106
00:10:28,160 --> 00:10:33,520
I thought that a lot of the things
Rutte said were a bit strange.
107
00:10:33,640 --> 00:10:36,720
It's the collated file, Wim.
-It's quite a file.
108
00:10:36,840 --> 00:10:38,880
It's the first time I've seen it.
109
00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:42,880
That doesn't make sense,
certainly not for a business.
110
00:10:43,000 --> 00:10:47,400
I got stuck into it and after a while
I had all kinds of information.
111
00:10:47,520 --> 00:10:50,440
We were talking on the phone...
112
00:10:50,560 --> 00:10:56,000
and I thought: Wait a minute.
My brother knows a lot about this too.
113
00:10:57,760 --> 00:10:59,920
He started telling me things.
114
00:11:00,040 --> 00:11:03,560
We're brothers
and talk to each other regularly...
115
00:11:03,680 --> 00:11:08,000
but I didn't know that he knew
such a huge amount about this subject.
116
00:11:08,120 --> 00:11:11,960
His field of study
and everything he's done...
117
00:11:12,080 --> 00:11:16,000
is related to coronavirus
because he also did SARS-CoV-1.
118
00:11:16,120 --> 00:11:20,920
We had so much common ground.
We really spent hours on the phone...
119
00:11:21,040 --> 00:11:27,320
talking about it and how we saw things
and, above all, the questions we had.
120
00:11:27,440 --> 00:11:33,400
It was funny really
because the crisis started...
121
00:11:33,520 --> 00:11:39,760
and at first everything's new.
For me, for Rutte, for everyone.
122
00:11:39,880 --> 00:11:45,400
It came in and we all wondered:
How bad is this and what's happening?
123
00:11:46,720 --> 00:11:51,320
It was certainly presented
as something that could be very serious.
124
00:11:51,440 --> 00:11:57,800
Then he started that citizens' initiative
and told me all about that.
125
00:12:00,400 --> 00:12:05,920
I went looking for publications.
I have a scientific background...
126
00:12:06,040 --> 00:12:11,560
so I don't want to know all the stuff
on the internet and things like that.
127
00:12:11,680 --> 00:12:17,640
I know that half of it is unreliable.
No, I look in scientific articles.
128
00:12:17,760 --> 00:12:23,160
What's been published?
What do we know? What's been written?
129
00:12:23,280 --> 00:12:26,720
As Nico said earlier
it started with SARS...
130
00:12:26,840 --> 00:12:32,440
which had emerged once before
in the past, in 2003.
131
00:12:32,560 --> 00:12:38,880
Those kinds of articles were published
quite long ago, at that time.
132
00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:44,520
I looked back to see
what we already knew about it back then.
133
00:12:44,640 --> 00:12:52,040
And how did it relate to this new SARS?
This one is called SARS-CoV-2...
134
00:12:52,160 --> 00:12:58,880
because it's the second. The first didn't
have a number then, but now it's SARS-1.
135
00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:04,240
I studied that in depth,
also so that I could answer questions...
136
00:13:04,360 --> 00:13:08,000
especially about immunity.
What does it mean?
137
00:13:08,120 --> 00:13:11,600
And indeed, in the story...
138
00:13:11,720 --> 00:13:17,360
they really talked at first exclusively
about immunoglobulin.
139
00:13:17,480 --> 00:13:24,520
Immunity as it is measured in the blood,
the way that Sanquin presented it too.
140
00:13:24,640 --> 00:13:31,840
That astonished me, because it's one
element of immunity that you can measure.
141
00:13:31,960 --> 00:13:35,720
But there's much more.
The immune system is wide-ranging.
142
00:13:35,840 --> 00:13:38,640
There are T-cells too, as he said.
143
00:13:38,760 --> 00:13:45,720
But there's also a first defence response
that can make a big difference.
144
00:13:45,840 --> 00:13:51,040
So you want to know
how all the pieces fit into the picture.
145
00:13:57,560 --> 00:14:00,760
When the Outbreak Management Team
was set up...
146
00:14:00,880 --> 00:14:05,080
I was surprised that they spoke
very little about public health.
147
00:14:05,200 --> 00:14:10,840
It was all about virologists. That makes
sense because it's a virus, I get that.
148
00:14:10,960 --> 00:14:15,800
But public health
is about much more than just a virus.
149
00:14:15,920 --> 00:14:20,400
There's much more
to ensuring we're healthy.
150
00:14:20,520 --> 00:14:23,480
There are the lifestyle diseases
and so on.
151
00:14:23,600 --> 00:14:27,560
The other strange thing
was the social and economic side.
152
00:14:27,680 --> 00:14:32,440
As an entrepreneur I knew that
what was said would have a big impact.
153
00:14:32,560 --> 00:14:38,160
That wasn't mentioned. Then it transpired
that the other experts weren't in the OMT.
154
00:14:38,280 --> 00:14:39,680
That was so strange.
155
00:14:39,800 --> 00:14:45,720
That's when I started searching
for information myself.
156
00:14:45,840 --> 00:14:51,480
Eventually we were doing research
with 20 scientists in four countries.
157
00:14:51,600 --> 00:14:56,400
It was great, we got so much information.
Everyone had their own task.
158
00:14:56,520 --> 00:15:00,880
We had data scientists,
people looking at economics...
159
00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:07,360
accountants, there were doctors
among the scientists, and econometrists.
160
00:15:07,480 --> 00:15:14,240
It was amazing. In just eight weeks we
got a clear picture of what was going on.
161
00:15:18,880 --> 00:15:23,000
The big question for me was:
What actually happens?
162
00:15:23,120 --> 00:15:25,600
What does the virus do to the body?
163
00:15:25,720 --> 00:15:30,000
You got me on the right track at once:
Nico, it's an overreaction.
164
00:15:32,040 --> 00:15:36,800
It's not so easy to explain.
165
00:15:36,920 --> 00:15:42,880
There are various different aspects
of the immune system you have to look at.
166
00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:46,960
It's like he said:
There were events everywhere...
167
00:15:47,080 --> 00:15:53,760
such as in Italy in Vo'
and on the cruise ships...
168
00:15:53,880 --> 00:16:01,840
where infections were recorded but
not very many people fell seriously ill.
169
00:16:01,960 --> 00:16:07,800
That indicated that there must be
some kind of natural defence.
170
00:16:07,920 --> 00:16:15,480
Interestingly, there are full scientific
reports on the events in Vo' in Italy...
171
00:16:15,600 --> 00:16:21,880
so that's my source. I take little notice
of what's on the internet or the news.
172
00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:24,840
I look at the publications.
173
00:16:24,960 --> 00:16:31,600
Reading that, you find out
that everyone in that village...
174
00:16:31,720 --> 00:16:36,440
after the first serious incidence there...
175
00:16:36,560 --> 00:16:40,640
which led to the death
of one of the inhabitants...
176
00:16:40,760 --> 00:16:47,480
the whole village was locked down
and they tested everyone...
177
00:16:47,600 --> 00:16:54,760
to find out: Who has and has not tested
positive? What symptoms do they have?
178
00:16:54,880 --> 00:16:59,320
And who is infecting whom?
They studied that and reported on it.
179
00:17:01,800 --> 00:17:09,720
They found that 50 percent of people had
no symptoms or no detectable symptoms.
180
00:17:09,840 --> 00:17:14,600
And although people seemed to be
passing it on to each other...
181
00:17:14,720 --> 00:17:18,280
in the sense that
they got a positive result in a test...
182
00:17:18,400 --> 00:17:22,560
there were no serious consequences.
183
00:17:22,680 --> 00:17:28,240
That indicates that there must be
some kind of natural protection.
184
00:17:28,360 --> 00:17:30,880
So you go looking for other articles.
185
00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:37,320
More and more of them appeared, even
in the early phase around April and May.
186
00:17:39,760 --> 00:17:46,040
We wrote in this document that
various articles confirmed back then...
187
00:17:46,160 --> 00:17:53,720
that the T-cells play a huge role.
They cause a kind of cross-reaction...
188
00:17:53,840 --> 00:17:57,840
that originates
in previous coronavirus infections.
189
00:17:57,960 --> 00:18:04,920
Because there are a large number of these
viruses that are all slightly different.
190
00:18:05,040 --> 00:18:08,640
That's what the immunity is built on.
191
00:18:08,760 --> 00:18:15,880
The T-cell recognises parts of the
coronavirus, according to the article.
192
00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:22,000
That means that other people
who have never seen the new variant...
193
00:18:22,120 --> 00:18:26,480
can still demonstrate defence,
based on that.
194
00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:31,920
That turned out to be 40 to 60 percent,
based on T-cells.
195
00:18:32,040 --> 00:18:38,520
It was interesting that on the news
only immunoglobulin was mentioned...
196
00:18:38,640 --> 00:18:43,920
which is made by B-cells
that are measured in the blood.
197
00:18:44,040 --> 00:18:50,240
That appeared in only five to ten percent
of the cases in Brabant...
198
00:18:50,360 --> 00:18:53,720
which was a fairly large
infection hotspot.
199
00:18:53,840 --> 00:18:57,760
Interestingly, I thought,
it later turned out...
200
00:18:57,880 --> 00:19:02,560
fragments had been published
but then the Swedish article appeared...
201
00:19:02,680 --> 00:19:06,400
by the famous Karolinska Institute
in Stockholm.
202
00:19:06,520 --> 00:19:08,640
They measured everything:
203
00:19:08,760 --> 00:19:14,680
The T-cell and the B-cell response
with immunoglobulin, etcetera.
204
00:19:14,800 --> 00:19:18,280
That brought everything together.
205
00:19:18,400 --> 00:19:24,480
They said that the B-cell immunoglobulin
that people always talk about...
206
00:19:24,600 --> 00:19:28,000
was present only to a limited degree,
or even absent.
207
00:19:28,120 --> 00:19:32,240
But the T-cell responses were present
to a certain degree.
208
00:19:32,360 --> 00:19:38,720
Up to around 40 to 60 percent.
This again points to the conclusion...
209
00:19:38,840 --> 00:19:44,040
that there is a natural resistance
to coronaviruses.
210
00:19:45,720 --> 00:19:51,880
That also explains
why a lot of people may test positive...
211
00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:54,960
but don't have any symptoms at all.
212
00:19:55,080 --> 00:19:59,320
That was the basic picture,
which to me meant:
213
00:19:59,440 --> 00:20:04,920
This is essentially
almost a classic immunity...
214
00:20:05,040 --> 00:20:08,760
built up against viruses,
the kind we see all the time.
215
00:20:11,880 --> 00:20:17,080
The whole world
pursued more or less the same policy.
216
00:20:17,200 --> 00:20:20,520
There were two reasons for this.
First, the WHO.
217
00:20:20,640 --> 00:20:26,600
There's a lot of pharma money in the WHO,
so they're not impartial.
218
00:20:26,720 --> 00:20:33,440
The same happened in 2009.
They decide what the status of a virus is.
219
00:20:33,560 --> 00:20:40,520
Back then they classified swine flu
as Pandemic A: life-threatening.
220
00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:45,680
It proved not to be, but many vaccines
were produced and they were all sold.
221
00:20:45,800 --> 00:20:50,120
There was uproar about that,
because in hindsight it was all wrong.
222
00:20:50,240 --> 00:20:55,440
That wasn't how things were. It was
just pharma money pulling the strings.
223
00:20:55,560 --> 00:20:59,880
We don't seem to have learned anything,
as it's happening again now.
224
00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:04,200
The strange thing is that
the rules for that have been adapted.
225
00:21:04,320 --> 00:21:07,640
Looking back,
as our citizens' initiative shows...
226
00:21:07,760 --> 00:21:12,280
the WHO doesn't want social distancing
and lockdowns.
227
00:21:12,400 --> 00:21:16,520
It's in a publication from 2019.
That's not the way to go.
228
00:21:16,640 --> 00:21:19,440
But they changed it nonetheless.
Very odd.
229
00:21:19,560 --> 00:21:23,680
They decide the policy for 193 countries.
230
00:21:23,800 --> 00:21:28,200
The panic and copying each other
is all a part of that too.
231
00:21:28,320 --> 00:21:31,160
There was great panic in Italy,
in Bergamo.
232
00:21:31,280 --> 00:21:35,720
Then India said: Let's do the same
as Italy, that must be the best thing.
233
00:21:35,840 --> 00:21:40,840
Meanwhile the same policy was laid down
for 193 countries around the world.
234
00:21:43,480 --> 00:21:47,880
In the end we tried to present this story
to politicians.
235
00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:53,000
Because we knew that Sweden
was doing very well at the time.
236
00:21:53,120 --> 00:21:58,400
Focus on looking after vulnerable groups,
they're the ones that need it.
237
00:21:58,520 --> 00:22:02,480
We couldn't get through to politicians.
238
00:22:02,600 --> 00:22:06,640
We really tried,
with all the party spokespeople.
239
00:22:06,760 --> 00:22:12,200
We tried through Feike Sijbesma
and Barbara Baarsma. No response.
240
00:22:12,320 --> 00:22:16,000
We tried the newspapers, the media.
They won't publish it.
241
00:22:16,120 --> 00:22:21,000
There's a message from NRC: Dear
Mr Sloot, thank you for your submission.
242
00:22:21,120 --> 00:22:25,120
We get many articles on this topic
and must select stringently.
243
00:22:25,240 --> 00:22:29,000
Your contribution
is not eligible for publication.
244
00:22:29,120 --> 00:22:34,600
They decided that fast. Apparently
herd immunity isn't very important.
245
00:22:34,720 --> 00:22:36,720
That's that, then.
-Yes.
246
00:22:47,120 --> 00:22:53,400
There was huge pressure on Intensive
Care, and care workers did an amazing job.
247
00:22:53,520 --> 00:22:56,480
That was in the first three weeks.
248
00:22:58,440 --> 00:23:01,320
Then it became clear what was going on.
249
00:23:01,440 --> 00:23:05,920
Rutte said: With 50% of the facts
I have to make 100% of the decisions.
250
00:23:06,040 --> 00:23:10,600
That's fair enough.
But as a businessman I'd say that means...
251
00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:15,720
you need to get hold of the information
as soon as possible.
252
00:23:18,200 --> 00:23:24,440
Strangely, it was clear after those three
weeks who the high-risk groups were:
253
00:23:24,560 --> 00:23:32,560
Elderly people with an illness were the
ones who fell ill and were hospitalised.
254
00:23:35,360 --> 00:23:40,360
And a very big group of healthy people,
the economic workforce...
255
00:23:40,480 --> 00:23:44,280
really weren't very much affected.
256
00:23:44,400 --> 00:23:48,080
Some were, but far fewer
than victims of road accidents.
257
00:23:48,200 --> 00:23:54,480
The strange thing is that Rutte told us
we all had to go into lockdown.
258
00:23:55,520 --> 00:24:02,360
I didn't understand that. I thought: Why
don't the people who need protecting...
259
00:24:02,480 --> 00:24:06,120
who are also going into lockdown,
get fully protected...
260
00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:12,120
and why not let the ones who are barely
affected keep the economy going?
261
00:24:12,240 --> 00:24:15,440
With a few measures that may help,
of course.
262
00:24:17,520 --> 00:24:24,320
It was also strange that the experts
in the OMT and the RIVM...
263
00:24:24,440 --> 00:24:27,800
were mainly virologists.
I didn't understand that.
264
00:24:27,920 --> 00:24:35,000
After all those IC weeks, it was clear
this was about more than public health.
265
00:24:35,120 --> 00:24:37,880
And it's only a small part
of public health.
266
00:24:38,000 --> 00:24:41,360
If you look at lifestyle and road traffic
deaths...
267
00:24:41,480 --> 00:24:45,520
there are many more things
that affect public health.
268
00:24:47,080 --> 00:24:51,800
It was odd that we didn't look
at the social and economic aspects too.
269
00:24:51,920 --> 00:24:57,760
Because imposing lockdowns like this
has quite an impact on your economy.
270
00:25:00,720 --> 00:25:04,320
Why aren't these experts being consulted?
271
00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:29,880
We'd been writing to the House
of Representatives for months...
272
00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:31,720
and getting no answer.
273
00:25:31,840 --> 00:25:37,520
But one hashtag from celebrities with lots
of followers gets everyone interested.
274
00:25:37,640 --> 00:25:43,040
The media want to talk to the celebrities
but not about anything of substance.
275
00:25:44,480 --> 00:25:48,240
They want the sensationalism
but not the content.
276
00:25:48,360 --> 00:25:53,080
If they do want content
they get two opposing camps together...
277
00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:56,280
so you can never
get beneath the surface on TV.
278
00:25:56,400 --> 00:26:00,480
There's no scientific debate
on those kinds of programmes.
279
00:26:00,600 --> 00:26:06,520
I find that difficult.
It's quite a fine line to tread.
280
00:26:08,600 --> 00:26:14,920
I'm worried and above all
I feel I've reached my moral limits...
281
00:26:15,040 --> 00:26:19,880
in the way we're treating public health
and humanity at the moment.
282
00:26:31,120 --> 00:26:35,600
It seems to me that
we're in one big behavioural experiment.
283
00:26:35,720 --> 00:26:38,080
And that we're damaging people.
284
00:26:38,200 --> 00:26:44,280
It's not clear what the added value is
of the actions taken recently.
285
00:26:44,400 --> 00:26:50,760
It's hard not to say what I think,
given the oath I have taken as a doctor.
286
00:26:50,880 --> 00:26:56,160
That's why I have said what I think,
firstly to the medical associations.
287
00:26:56,280 --> 00:26:59,560
That's not getting any real results.
288
00:26:59,680 --> 00:27:05,920
Doctors are quite media-shy and think
we should resolve things among ourselves.
289
00:27:06,040 --> 00:27:12,080
What is that?
-My hospital responded well at first.
290
00:27:12,200 --> 00:27:17,640
They said there's room for differing
opinions in a scientific debate.
291
00:27:17,760 --> 00:27:24,720
It's important in science to doubt and
ask questions. So there's scope for that.
292
00:27:24,840 --> 00:27:26,880
I see that in other hospitals too.
293
00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:33,200
The other side of it is that hospitals
often have several different interests.
294
00:27:33,320 --> 00:27:37,040
And my opinion
isn't necessarily the hospital's opinion.
295
00:27:37,160 --> 00:27:40,800
So the hospital is very cautious
and has warned me too:
296
00:27:40,920 --> 00:27:45,040
Be aware that given your position
and place of work...
297
00:27:45,160 --> 00:27:51,800
even if you say you're speaking as an
individual, people won't always see that.
298
00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:57,240
You see it in the media too, they often
do start referring to the hospital.
299
00:27:57,360 --> 00:28:03,480
This is my view, not my hospital's view.
I'm glad to be able to speak my mind.
300
00:28:03,600 --> 00:28:07,240
But it's actually weird to say:
I'm glad I can speak my mind.
301
00:28:07,360 --> 00:28:13,000
We have freedom of speech and should
be able to talk about it much more freely.
302
00:28:13,120 --> 00:28:16,640
I know that some people
are afraid to speak up.
303
00:28:16,760 --> 00:28:20,800
Or are afraid about their job
or their colleagues' opinions...
304
00:28:20,920 --> 00:28:25,120
or to be out on their own.
-When did you first think that?
305
00:28:25,240 --> 00:28:30,240
Because Rutte said from the start
that it's a dangerous virus.
306
00:28:30,360 --> 00:28:36,480
At what point did you think: Hm.
I'm not sure if that's what it really is.
307
00:28:36,600 --> 00:28:41,400
It's a new virus, much more infectious
and many people are getting sick.
308
00:28:41,520 --> 00:28:45,680
It can be a very nasty illness
and we have to provide much more care.
309
00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:52,200
So our care capacity during the epidemic
and during the peaks...
310
00:28:52,320 --> 00:28:55,960
and maybe again in the coming period,
is insufficient.
311
00:28:56,080 --> 00:28:59,120
It's the norm for us
to have undercapacity.
312
00:28:59,240 --> 00:29:04,080
But there is a consequence...
313
00:29:04,200 --> 00:29:08,520
in terms of what government policy
has been over the past years.
314
00:29:08,640 --> 00:29:16,280
In fact the flu virus in 2017 to 2018
was similar. Lots of people in hospital.
315
00:29:16,400 --> 00:29:19,440
But now
the focus is mainly on IC capacity.
316
00:29:19,560 --> 00:29:23,600
That made sense in the first three weeks.
After that, it was okay.
317
00:29:23,720 --> 00:29:27,120
But the focus now is still on healthcare.
318
00:29:27,240 --> 00:29:32,520
The problem is bedside care.
Massive cuts have been made there.
319
00:29:32,640 --> 00:29:40,440
And in nursing care. There's debate
about salaries, overtime and breaks.
320
00:29:40,560 --> 00:29:45,040
That's a problem around healthcare
and how it's financed.
321
00:29:45,160 --> 00:29:50,600
It's a stalemate.
We're in a healthcare crisis...
322
00:29:50,720 --> 00:29:54,400
and that's magnified by coronavirus.
323
00:29:54,520 --> 00:30:00,040
We've had good plans in place
for pandemics for decades.
324
00:30:00,160 --> 00:30:06,360
Given current population growth,
a pandemic was to be expected.
325
00:30:06,480 --> 00:30:10,760
We have assumed for years
that this would happen at some point.
326
00:30:10,880 --> 00:30:16,040
On the other hand,
we've been downscaling beds for years.
327
00:30:16,160 --> 00:30:22,080
We have far fewer beds than five to eight
years ago and fewer bedside staff.
328
00:30:22,200 --> 00:30:24,320
That's led to extra problems now.
329
00:30:24,440 --> 00:30:29,760
Is that why they're sticking to all these
measures? To keep things under control?
330
00:30:29,880 --> 00:30:32,120
Until there's a vaccine?
331
00:30:32,240 --> 00:30:35,920
I hope not,
as that would be a very bad reason.
332
00:30:36,040 --> 00:30:41,560
That makes the patient and the doctor
part of the product in the...
333
00:30:41,680 --> 00:30:45,400
In the system.
-In the system. In the business model.
334
00:30:45,520 --> 00:30:49,920
We can't allow that
to be an underlying drive.
335
00:30:50,040 --> 00:30:54,480
It should never be the reason
behind any measures taken.
336
00:30:54,600 --> 00:30:58,880
I hope people continue to see that
purely based on the facts.
337
00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:03,120
And that it's taken into account,
because money makes you blind.
338
00:31:03,240 --> 00:31:05,080
We need to be very critical.
339
00:31:05,200 --> 00:31:12,080
We need to look carefully at the links
people have with money flows...
340
00:31:12,200 --> 00:31:18,040
and the decisions they take.
It's essential to keep that unbiased.
341
00:31:23,520 --> 00:31:25,760
But there's more to this.
342
00:31:25,880 --> 00:31:31,040
The research by PIENTER and Sanquin
always said there's grave danger.
343
00:31:31,160 --> 00:31:38,720
As Rutte and Feike Sijbesma said:
95 percent of people have no defence.
344
00:31:38,840 --> 00:31:44,320
Because Sanquin's study said only
5 percent have antibodies, B-cells.
345
00:31:45,440 --> 00:31:48,680
But we know for a fact,
as Robbert Dijkgraaf said...
346
00:31:48,800 --> 00:31:53,440
and it's clear from the asymptomatic
cases that there is herd immunity.
347
00:31:53,560 --> 00:31:57,880
Together with my brother
I wanted to publish that story...
348
00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:01,800
that science has proved
there is herd immunity.
349
00:32:01,920 --> 00:32:07,440
It's strange that in all this time
the RIVM, PIENTER and Sanquin...
350
00:32:07,560 --> 00:32:11,440
have not once mentioned T-cells.
Now all of a sudden...
351
00:32:11,560 --> 00:32:16,720
Feike Sijbesma, I asked him: As a medical
biologist you must know about T-cells?
352
00:32:16,840 --> 00:32:21,880
He said: Nico, T-cells are very important
in all this. So I asked:
353
00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:25,320
You're close to the cabinet,
why don't you tell them?
354
00:32:25,440 --> 00:32:28,080
He said:
I have no say in the politics of it.
355
00:32:29,560 --> 00:32:36,040
A week later in the newspapers and on TV
he was still telling the same story:
356
00:32:36,160 --> 00:32:41,680
Only 5 percent are protected by B-cells.
I thought: Feike, how can that be?
357
00:32:41,800 --> 00:32:45,040
The crazy thing was
that the newspaper said...
358
00:32:45,160 --> 00:32:50,040
that the T-cells need to be jump-started
by the vaccine.
359
00:32:50,160 --> 00:32:55,960
I thought: This is too much. So it's not
important if we have natural T-cells...
360
00:32:56,080 --> 00:33:03,080
but if we make a vaccine it has to
encourage the T-cells to become active.
361
00:33:03,200 --> 00:33:05,480
I'm at a complete loss.
362
00:33:06,840 --> 00:33:11,520
But there's more, because Feike Sijbesma
struck a deal with AstraZeneca.
363
00:33:11,640 --> 00:33:15,400
Then it starts to make sense.
First it's a private deal...
364
00:33:15,520 --> 00:33:21,560
between four European countries
and AstraZeneca to produce the vaccines.
365
00:33:21,680 --> 00:33:28,800
Then it turns out that Feike's brother
is the CEO in Germany.
366
00:33:28,920 --> 00:33:33,520
When that hits the news the coronavirus
special envoy suddenly has to go.
367
00:33:33,640 --> 00:33:36,000
Feike Sijbesma leaves the stage.
368
00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:43,040
And AstraZeneca suddenly says:
Yes, but we're doing the deal for the EU.
369
00:33:43,160 --> 00:33:50,680
So instead of being a deal for just
four countries, it's for the whole EU.
370
00:33:50,800 --> 00:33:57,160
At the same time, the media announces
that hopes of herd immunity are fading.
371
00:33:57,280 --> 00:34:02,560
And Feike tells the press the whole of the
Netherlands will need to be vaccinated.
372
00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:07,040
Like Bill Gates, who says: The whole world
will need to be vaccinated.
373
00:34:07,160 --> 00:34:08,560
But why?
374
00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:15,800
Feike says it's about the purchase price,
he bought it cheaply.
375
00:34:15,920 --> 00:34:21,160
But I'm an international entrepreneur
and it's a well-known fact...
376
00:34:21,280 --> 00:34:28,240
that the pharmaceutical industry makes
three times as much profit as any other.
377
00:34:28,360 --> 00:34:33,800
Feike can't tell me, a businessman, that
it's suddenly a philanthropic institution.
378
00:34:33,920 --> 00:34:39,280
That because they're making a vaccine
for public health they're more or less...
379
00:34:39,400 --> 00:34:44,120
doing it at cost price, for free?
No, it's just a second business model.
380
00:34:44,240 --> 00:34:46,240
That model is real...
381
00:34:46,360 --> 00:34:51,160
as we now know that AstraZeneca
made the deal not just with Europe...
382
00:34:51,280 --> 00:34:58,320
but with Brazil too. And with Korea. And
with China. And with the United States.
383
00:34:58,440 --> 00:35:01,960
They've already sold
three billion worth of vaccines.
384
00:35:11,400 --> 00:35:16,120
Welcome to AstraZeneca.
All our lines our busy at the moment.
385
00:35:16,240 --> 00:35:18,600
We'll be with you as soon as possible.
386
00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:29,320
AstraZeneca.
-Good afternoon, Nico Sloot speaking.
387
00:35:29,440 --> 00:35:32,360
I have a question about COVID-19.
388
00:35:32,480 --> 00:35:36,880
Do you have a special spokesperson
for that or is it Communications?
389
00:35:37,000 --> 00:35:42,640
Sir, you can send an email
to info.nl@astrazeneca.com.
390
00:35:42,760 --> 00:35:46,840
It's a pharmaceutical company.
-Send the question by email...
391
00:35:46,960 --> 00:35:49,680
I'm just the receptionist.
-Goodbye.
392
00:35:51,480 --> 00:35:54,720
You can't get through.
They're not having it.
393
00:35:56,600 --> 00:36:00,720
The prevailing influenza
is caused by a so-called ultravirus.
394
00:36:00,840 --> 00:36:05,160
A tiny bacteria
one ten thousandth of a millimetre across.
395
00:36:07,360 --> 00:36:12,760
The Institute for Preventive Medicine
and Leiden University's virus labs...
396
00:36:12,880 --> 00:36:16,720
collect research material
using liquid air...
397
00:36:16,840 --> 00:36:22,440
made at the Kamerlingh Onnes lab and with
a temperature of 180 degrees below zero.
398
00:36:22,560 --> 00:36:26,560
This plane has not brought
a celebrity to Schiphol Airport...
399
00:36:26,680 --> 00:36:30,000
but an eagerly-awaited, important cargo:
400
00:36:30,120 --> 00:36:34,520
A large shipment of Salk vaccine
to combat infantile paralysis.
401
00:36:41,080 --> 00:36:45,960
Looking at pharma,
do you see that it's a business model?
402
00:36:46,080 --> 00:36:51,840
That health is a business model?
-Yes, it's obvious.
403
00:36:51,960 --> 00:36:56,480
The pharmaceutical industry
makes an enormous profit on its products.
404
00:36:56,600 --> 00:37:02,840
If that benefited people's health,
you'd say: Fair enough, who cares.
405
00:37:02,960 --> 00:37:08,480
But there are increasing signs
that medicines play a key role...
406
00:37:08,600 --> 00:37:12,120
in the falling life expectancy
in the United States...
407
00:37:12,240 --> 00:37:16,280
and stagnating life expectancy
in the European Union.
408
00:37:16,400 --> 00:37:22,240
We've seen big scandals around Vioxx,
Rofecoxib, a simple painkiller.
409
00:37:22,360 --> 00:37:28,320
The medication for diabetes:
rosiglitazone, Avandia.
410
00:37:28,440 --> 00:37:33,800
Countless medications have cost hundreds
of thousands of people their lives.
411
00:37:33,920 --> 00:37:40,000
It just keeps on going. You would think
that after all of those tragedies...
412
00:37:40,120 --> 00:37:45,600
the rules would be tightened. They're not,
in fact they're being relaxed.
413
00:37:45,720 --> 00:37:49,920
So pharma is a great business model.
414
00:37:50,040 --> 00:37:54,760
I've seen that in recent years
it has had the highest returns.
415
00:37:54,880 --> 00:38:00,680
They're at 17.5 percent. I know that
the average is five or six percent.
416
00:38:00,800 --> 00:38:06,400
So they earn three times as much. Is it
because of their powerful monopoly?
417
00:38:06,520 --> 00:38:09,840
Is it due to patents? Exclusive rights?
Is that why?
418
00:38:09,960 --> 00:38:12,840
It's largely due to patents.
419
00:38:12,960 --> 00:38:18,480
But there are a number of big players
that dominate the market.
420
00:38:18,600 --> 00:38:23,040
They've made agreements
with the registration authorities...
421
00:38:23,160 --> 00:38:25,800
about the requirements they have to meet.
422
00:38:25,920 --> 00:38:32,520
These days, the European Medicines
Agency or EMA in Amsterdam...
423
00:38:32,640 --> 00:38:36,160
the Food and Drug Administration or FDA
in America...
424
00:38:36,280 --> 00:38:42,040
say very clearly on their websites
that they want to help manufacturers...
425
00:38:42,160 --> 00:38:48,400
to bring their product onto the market.
That's a very strange situation.
426
00:38:48,520 --> 00:38:55,760
You would expect organisations like this
to put the citizens first.
427
00:38:55,880 --> 00:38:59,880
To only approve medicines
that have been proven to work...
428
00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:03,600
and that have
the fewest possible side effects.
429
00:39:03,720 --> 00:39:11,040
What do politicians do? Edith Schippers
said, when she was Minister of Health:
430
00:39:11,160 --> 00:39:17,200
This can't go on, the monopoly and
power of the pharmaceutical companies.
431
00:39:17,320 --> 00:39:20,600
Has anything changed in politics,
in your opinion?
432
00:39:20,720 --> 00:39:26,000
No. As regards Schippers, she said
one thing and did the exact opposite.
433
00:39:26,120 --> 00:39:31,120
So that didn't get us anywhere.
I'm compelled to conclude...
434
00:39:31,240 --> 00:39:36,440
that there's almost no expertise in this
subject in the House of Representatives.
435
00:39:36,560 --> 00:39:40,720
The same applies
to the European Parliament...
436
00:39:40,840 --> 00:39:44,840
and the leaders of the Ministry
of Health, Welfare and Sport.
437
00:39:44,960 --> 00:39:48,880
So the manufacturers
get almost no pushback.
438
00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:52,000
And that's serious. Very serious.
439
00:39:52,120 --> 00:39:58,920
How do you see that in relation to
coronavirus, the problem we're facing now?
440
00:39:59,040 --> 00:40:05,640
There's a strong focus on the vaccine
now. I'll say more about that in a moment.
441
00:40:05,760 --> 00:40:09,200
And again on a virus inhibitor,
Remdesivir...
442
00:40:09,320 --> 00:40:14,360
which was given provisional approval
for a few months in the EU.
443
00:40:14,480 --> 00:40:22,160
It's based on extremely bad research that
really doesn't support any conclusions.
444
00:40:22,280 --> 00:40:25,680
It's produced
by a company called Gilead...
445
00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:30,680
the company that also put sofosbuvir,
Sovaldi...
446
00:40:30,800 --> 00:40:34,680
for the treatment of Hepatitis C
on the market.
447
00:40:34,800 --> 00:40:40,720
Production costs: 150 euros. A course
of treatment costs 80,000 euros.
448
00:40:40,840 --> 00:40:44,840
Those are the kinds of companies
and people we're dealing with.
449
00:40:44,960 --> 00:40:48,800
If you look at our overreaction, say.
450
00:40:48,920 --> 00:40:53,160
We've seen
that COVID-19 causes a reaction...
451
00:40:53,280 --> 00:40:56,240
mostly in people
with weaker immune systems.
452
00:40:56,360 --> 00:41:02,360
Worldwide the people who die
have an average age of 80, 80.5...
453
00:41:02,480 --> 00:41:10,200
with a lot of underlying conditions.
Is that comparable with a bad case of flu?
454
00:41:10,320 --> 00:41:16,680
It is, in fact. The people who die in
yearly flu outbreaks are mainly elderly...
455
00:41:16,800 --> 00:41:20,800
with comorbidity,
in other words other illnesses...
456
00:41:20,920 --> 00:41:25,080
and who use other medicines,
or comedication.
457
00:41:25,200 --> 00:41:28,200
That has been the case with flu for years.
458
00:41:28,320 --> 00:41:35,400
The people who die
are mainly residents of nursing homes.
459
00:41:35,520 --> 00:41:41,480
And it's the same with this illness,
this coronavirus pandemic.
460
00:41:41,600 --> 00:41:47,800
Given that, how do you view AstraZeneca?
What struck me in our research...
461
00:41:47,920 --> 00:41:55,000
was that all the cards had already been
dealt. Feike Sijbesma made a deal...
462
00:41:55,120 --> 00:41:59,280
with his brother, it turned out.
Four countries, then the EU.
463
00:41:59,400 --> 00:42:04,840
Now many countries have joined in and
three billion vaccines have been sold.
464
00:42:04,960 --> 00:42:07,520
Is that not comparable?
465
00:42:07,640 --> 00:42:13,040
AstraZeneca is a company
like so many others, actually...
466
00:42:13,160 --> 00:42:19,080
like GlaxoSmithKline, that are
regularly linked to serious fraud...
467
00:42:19,200 --> 00:42:22,200
especially scientific fraud.
468
00:42:22,320 --> 00:42:26,120
There are some ongoing cases, right?
-Yes.
469
00:42:26,240 --> 00:42:29,520
Another thing I noticed
during my research...
470
00:42:29,640 --> 00:42:36,000
is that these pharmaceutical companies
have an incredible marketing apparatus.
471
00:42:36,120 --> 00:42:41,400
In the Netherlands and worldwide.
Their representatives visit doctors.
472
00:42:41,520 --> 00:42:45,640
Can you say something about that?
They're very good at it.
473
00:42:45,760 --> 00:42:49,520
Yes. The pharmaceutical industry
is extremely powerful.
474
00:42:49,640 --> 00:42:54,080
They have a lot of power and money
and because of that...
475
00:42:54,200 --> 00:43:00,600
they're able to promote and market
their new treatments very effectively.
476
00:43:00,720 --> 00:43:05,880
And it works. It really works.
Otherwise they wouldn't keep doing it.
477
00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:08,720
Doctors are susceptible to marketing.
478
00:43:08,840 --> 00:43:14,000
Often they don't have expert knowledge,
they can't assess the research...
479
00:43:14,120 --> 00:43:19,320
and they rely on what they're told
by medical sales representatives...
480
00:43:19,440 --> 00:43:22,880
and medical opinion leaders.
-And can they earn more?
481
00:43:23,000 --> 00:43:27,080
Is there a business model
for the intermediaries?
482
00:43:27,200 --> 00:43:33,320
Yes. In fact when I was still practising
I was told by the medical sales reps...
483
00:43:33,440 --> 00:43:39,320
that they were assessed on
whether the number of prescriptions...
484
00:43:39,440 --> 00:43:42,280
of their new drug increased
in their region.
485
00:43:42,400 --> 00:43:44,360
Yes, yes.
486
00:43:44,480 --> 00:43:48,880
As well as that
there are doctors, specialists...
487
00:43:49,000 --> 00:43:53,840
who are instructed or employed
by the pharmaceutical industry...
488
00:43:53,960 --> 00:43:56,280
medical opinion leaders or MOLs...
489
00:43:56,400 --> 00:44:01,680
who are actively engaged
in prescribing the new medications...
490
00:44:01,800 --> 00:44:05,640
and to market them.
That works well.
491
00:44:05,760 --> 00:44:10,640
It works well in politics, as there are
no experts at the Ministry of Health...
492
00:44:10,760 --> 00:44:14,720
or the House of Representatives.
So they can do as they please.
493
00:44:14,840 --> 00:44:21,760
The only people who play a significant
role in this are the patients.
494
00:44:21,880 --> 00:44:26,000
They're the ones you have to reach
and I see it as my task...
495
00:44:26,120 --> 00:44:30,840
to inform people as much and as fully
as possible about medications.
496
00:44:32,360 --> 00:44:37,560
How come there is no accountability,
no product liability for pharma...
497
00:44:37,680 --> 00:44:41,400
and they can make decisions
together in secret?
498
00:44:41,520 --> 00:44:45,200
Why are we being advised
by Feike Sijbesma...
499
00:44:45,320 --> 00:44:49,680
and Bill Gates that the world,
our whole country needs vaccinations.
500
00:44:49,800 --> 00:44:56,000
Surely we don't need vaccinations
but a solution to the coronavirus problem?
501
00:44:56,120 --> 00:45:01,080
The problem is the overreaction
in people with low immunity.
502
00:45:01,200 --> 00:45:05,240
The average age of those
who have died is 80.5 worldwide.
503
00:45:05,360 --> 00:45:07,880
Aren't they the ones we need to protect?
504
00:45:08,000 --> 00:45:11,600
The solution
is to have the right medication for them.
505
00:45:11,720 --> 00:45:15,640
So I would say:
Take the time to find a safe vaccine.
506
00:45:15,760 --> 00:45:20,560
Surely we won't use a pressure-cooker
situation and business models...
507
00:45:20,680 --> 00:45:27,360
to quickly produce a vaccine for the whole
of the Netherlands, for healthy people?
508
00:45:28,360 --> 00:45:30,560
I don't get it, it's not right.
509
00:45:33,880 --> 00:45:39,400
I'm going to call Feike Sijbesma now.
We've been in touch for quite a time.
510
00:45:41,040 --> 00:45:43,840
Hey Feike, good morning. It's Nico.
511
00:45:44,840 --> 00:45:50,720
Feike doesn't want to call on camera.
He later emailed the following:
512
00:45:50,840 --> 00:45:54,000
Coronavirus has had a huge effect
on the lives...
513
00:45:54,120 --> 00:45:57,880
of the young, working, vulnerable
and elderly, on all of us.
514
00:45:58,000 --> 00:46:01,480
We all want to return
to the life and freedoms we're used to.
515
00:46:01,600 --> 00:46:04,240
Tests, treatments and vaccines
can help.
516
00:46:04,360 --> 00:46:09,520
The EU is working for all 27 member
states to obtain treatments and vaccines.
517
00:46:09,640 --> 00:46:14,640
These must be effective and safe,
with fully transparent information.
518
00:46:14,760 --> 00:46:20,960
Their use must of course be voluntary,
individually decided and not obligatory.
519
00:46:28,720 --> 00:46:33,480
Good afternoon, NRC media, Thomas
Scholten speaking. How can I help you?
520
00:46:33,600 --> 00:46:39,400
Hello Thomas, I'm Nico Sloot.
I subscribe to your newspaper.
521
00:46:39,520 --> 00:46:43,440
I want to ask a question
about an article you published in July.
522
00:46:43,560 --> 00:46:48,320
Is that possible?
-You can always ask.
523
00:46:48,440 --> 00:46:56,320
I saw an article you published in July
by Feike Sijbesma about coronavirus.
524
00:46:56,440 --> 00:46:59,320
There were some surprising things in it...
525
00:46:59,440 --> 00:47:06,200
that I couldn't imagine Feike Sijbesma,
as the coronavirus envoy, would say.
526
00:47:06,320 --> 00:47:08,920
I spoke to Feike Sijbesma about it...
527
00:47:09,040 --> 00:47:15,360
and it turns out that he did not say
the things you wrote in the article.
528
00:47:15,480 --> 00:47:21,640
I'd like very much to write to the people
who wrote it but perhaps you can tell me.
529
00:47:21,760 --> 00:47:25,960
Why did you go ahead
and publish it like this?
530
00:47:26,080 --> 00:47:32,920
If he says, 'I didn't say that', then I
believe him. I've no reason to doubt it.
531
00:47:33,040 --> 00:47:39,680
I'll see if I can talk to someone
in the ranks and get it changed...
532
00:47:39,800 --> 00:47:43,840
or at least discussed.
-Okay. Thomas, thanks very much.
533
00:47:43,960 --> 00:47:47,720
It was a pleasure, good luck. Bye.
-Goodbye.
534
00:47:47,840 --> 00:47:53,040
Over the past months the media
have headed in a very specific direction.
535
00:47:53,160 --> 00:47:57,480
We're being told news
in a very one-sided way.
536
00:47:57,600 --> 00:48:03,240
And I think the media have a pretty
big role given the situation we're in.
537
00:48:03,360 --> 00:48:09,000
And that they have a lot of influence
on how people feel at the moment.
538
00:48:09,120 --> 00:48:12,960
Take the Pieter Klok interview
in De Volkskrant newspaper.
539
00:48:13,080 --> 00:48:17,000
I was so astonished.
I couldn't believe what the man said.
540
00:48:17,120 --> 00:48:23,400
If you're the editor-in-chief of a major
Dutch newspaper and you say:
541
00:48:23,520 --> 00:48:28,400
Due to the pandemic and the government's
position, I'm siding with them.
542
00:48:28,520 --> 00:48:32,600
That's just state television,
you're a state newspaper.
543
00:48:32,720 --> 00:48:36,480
In a crisis, especially,
you should check what's going on:
544
00:48:36,600 --> 00:48:42,960
Is what the RIVM says true? The statistics
about the deaths have now proved false.
545
00:48:43,080 --> 00:48:47,280
We need a parliamentary inquiry
right away. This was Radio 1:
546
00:48:47,400 --> 00:48:51,440
With so much fear around
we need to speak with one voice.
547
00:48:51,560 --> 00:48:53,360
You think so?
-Certainly.
548
00:48:53,480 --> 00:48:58,000
Isn't there a journalistic duty
to look at the consequences of policy?
549
00:48:58,120 --> 00:49:02,920
You don't just swallow everything whole.
That's the right expression.
550
00:49:03,040 --> 00:49:08,400
Not usually, but when society is so afraid
we need to agree with each other...
551
00:49:08,520 --> 00:49:11,960
and not magnify differences,
as happened yesterday.
552
00:49:12,080 --> 00:49:15,600
You can't expect everyone
to make up their own minds...
553
00:49:15,720 --> 00:49:18,800
by getting all these virologists
to talk at them.
554
00:49:18,920 --> 00:49:23,120
But what should the media do
if the virologists don't all agree?
555
00:49:23,240 --> 00:49:27,280
It's wise for a country to choose
one path and for us to support it.
556
00:49:27,400 --> 00:49:31,520
We all know that there's a lot
we don't know.
557
00:49:31,640 --> 00:49:37,160
So whichever path is chosen there will
be room for criticism. That's just a fact.
558
00:49:37,280 --> 00:49:43,080
But should you magnify the criticism
or simply support the chosen path?
559
00:49:43,200 --> 00:49:47,840
They sow a policy of fear and say:
We're all scared, so just do as we say.
560
00:49:47,960 --> 00:49:51,400
That's basically what he said.
It's bizarre.
561
00:49:52,960 --> 00:49:57,280
Welmoed speaking.
-Hello, Welmoed. This is Nico Sloot.
562
00:49:57,400 --> 00:50:05,040
I have a question for you as a journalist.
What I've noticed since COVID-19...
563
00:50:05,160 --> 00:50:09,840
just as a citizen and a father,
reading the newspapers and on TV...
564
00:50:09,960 --> 00:50:16,800
is that they're mainly telling a one-sided
story. That's what I see in the media.
565
00:50:16,920 --> 00:50:23,200
So much so, that I really do think
as a citizen that they're being censored.
566
00:50:23,320 --> 00:50:30,920
What's your experience of that
as a journalist in the COVID-19 period?
567
00:50:33,480 --> 00:50:36,480
I think that...
568
00:50:36,600 --> 00:50:39,840
because people
know nothing about the subject...
569
00:50:39,960 --> 00:50:44,560
people in general
and journalists in particular...
570
00:50:46,240 --> 00:50:49,360
find it difficult, outside the...
571
00:50:51,480 --> 00:50:56,120
to talk outside the scope
of the government line.
572
00:50:56,240 --> 00:51:01,560
Because if you have no knowledge
about the subject...
573
00:51:01,680 --> 00:51:05,440
it's easy to mess up
by saying something that's not right.
574
00:51:05,560 --> 00:51:09,240
It's safer
to stick to the government line.
575
00:51:15,000 --> 00:51:20,440
Come on in. What would you do
if you were the prime minister?
576
00:51:20,560 --> 00:51:24,720
Look at the media, they should
be critical, that's their job.
577
00:51:24,840 --> 00:51:28,360
But they're the helpers.
Is that not a bit strange?
578
00:51:28,480 --> 00:51:32,440
That's what is so disappointing.
It's now very clear...
579
00:51:32,560 --> 00:51:37,040
we no longer have critical media,
even in our own country.
580
00:51:37,160 --> 00:51:41,760
I'm shocked, as a citizen.
I didn't think it would go that far.
581
00:51:41,880 --> 00:51:46,160
I'm from the generation of journalists
who worked in the 60s.
582
00:51:46,280 --> 00:51:51,160
It was a great time for journalism.
We were highly critical and troublesome.
583
00:51:51,280 --> 00:51:54,040
We made life very hard for politicians.
584
00:51:54,160 --> 00:51:57,720
When I watch those two
at their press conferences...
585
00:51:57,840 --> 00:52:02,640
during the questions I think: Why don't
you ask a critical question for once?
586
00:52:02,760 --> 00:52:06,920
Why not do the research
and ask probing questions?
587
00:52:07,040 --> 00:52:11,280
To my mind, and we made
a bit of game out of this in the 60s...
588
00:52:11,400 --> 00:52:16,560
if you interviewed a politician
in the evening after a news show...
589
00:52:16,680 --> 00:52:20,400
you rather hoped
he would feel a little sick all day.
590
00:52:20,520 --> 00:52:25,840
Because he'd be thinking: I don't know
what might happen this evening.
591
00:52:25,960 --> 00:52:29,520
What they might ask,
Joop van Tijn and the other fellows.
592
00:52:29,640 --> 00:52:32,680
They did their research so thoroughly...
593
00:52:32,800 --> 00:52:38,160
I don't think Hugo de Jonge had diarrhoea
before any of the press conferences.
594
00:52:38,280 --> 00:52:42,240
But he should have.
A touch of nervousness...
595
00:52:42,360 --> 00:52:46,920
Because we...
That's the next turn that the story takes:
596
00:52:47,040 --> 00:52:52,000
We, the vast majority, the ordinary
citizens, are not represented.
597
00:52:52,120 --> 00:52:56,760
There's no lobby for us.
-No. Society needs its own lobby.
598
00:52:56,880 --> 00:53:01,760
That's very important, otherwise
everything will go to the other lobbies.
599
00:53:01,880 --> 00:53:03,560
But we don't have one.
600
00:53:03,680 --> 00:53:10,840
That's the nice thing about the term
'media': it suggests intermediation.
601
00:53:10,960 --> 00:53:15,440
To my mind it's a nice system:
There's reality.
602
00:53:15,560 --> 00:53:21,480
That's more or less complicated.
It's often less complicated than we think.
603
00:53:21,600 --> 00:53:26,960
So that's there. Then there's us,
all busy with our work, our families...
604
00:53:27,080 --> 00:53:30,680
our careers.
-The end of the month and off we go again.
605
00:53:30,800 --> 00:53:34,160
So life is difficult enough
for a lot of people.
606
00:53:34,280 --> 00:53:39,560
You also want to know what's going on
in the world, for when you vote...
607
00:53:39,680 --> 00:53:41,440
and to join in the chat at the pub.
608
00:53:41,560 --> 00:53:46,480
You need intermediaries for that,
and the intermediaries are the media.
609
00:53:46,600 --> 00:53:52,600
The quality of a democracy depends a lot
on the quality of the intermediaries.
610
00:53:52,720 --> 00:53:57,080
They need to be well-informed people
who have in-depth knowledge...
611
00:53:57,200 --> 00:54:02,520
and who can say: But Prime Minister,
I remember that in March 1982...
612
00:54:02,640 --> 00:54:06,200
your predecessor
formulated it very differently.
613
00:54:06,320 --> 00:54:13,200
Someone who has really done the research
and asks critical, probing questions.
614
00:54:13,320 --> 00:54:14,920
That has disappeared.
615
00:54:22,200 --> 00:54:27,760
How can the media
be so fully on the side of the RIVM?
616
00:54:27,880 --> 00:54:30,480
We've heard Pieter Klok's story.
617
00:54:30,600 --> 00:54:36,320
He simply says:
I only report the government's story...
618
00:54:36,440 --> 00:54:39,920
because we're in a pandemic,
there's a lot going on.
619
00:54:40,040 --> 00:54:46,160
But it seems to me that the media should
be especially critical during a crisis.
620
00:54:46,280 --> 00:54:51,240
They should be asking
whether we are making the right decisions.
621
00:54:51,360 --> 00:54:57,040
But when they tell so many lies and
half-truths, what am I supposed to think?
622
00:55:01,240 --> 00:55:04,200
To my mind, there's always a triangle:
623
00:55:04,320 --> 00:55:11,000
It consists of the cartels,
clearly defined and with a clear agenda...
624
00:55:11,120 --> 00:55:14,880
and the political decision-makers,
and the helpers.
625
00:55:15,000 --> 00:55:21,280
Political decision-makers are supposed to
represent the public interest.
626
00:55:21,400 --> 00:55:28,720
But that's not how the game plays out.
Politicians work best in the grey zone...
627
00:55:28,840 --> 00:55:34,960
so that they can say, 'I didn't have all
the facts', like Rutte said at the start.
628
00:55:35,080 --> 00:55:37,920
'We know 50 percent.'
-That was nonsense.
629
00:55:38,040 --> 00:55:43,280
From early January he knew far more
than he ever cared to admit.
630
00:55:43,400 --> 00:55:50,680
I think that for a politician that's the
best way to navigate, in shades of grey.
631
00:55:50,800 --> 00:55:53,000
You can keep your options open.
632
00:55:53,120 --> 00:55:59,240
That's one factor. The other
is the lack of rational thinking.
633
00:55:59,360 --> 00:56:04,120
We always assumed that in politics
and economics, for example...
634
00:56:04,240 --> 00:56:09,960
the decisions made are rational. But
most political decisions are irrational.
635
00:56:10,080 --> 00:56:16,120
That's because we, as human beings,
have a limited ability to act rationally.
636
00:56:16,240 --> 00:56:23,120
So every time the cabinet made an appeal
to people's rationality:
637
00:56:23,240 --> 00:56:26,760
'Please understand
that you need to wash your hands.'
638
00:56:26,880 --> 00:56:32,280
It was a highly rational approach.
But if psychology is right...
639
00:56:32,400 --> 00:56:38,600
and humans have
what is known as a bounded rationality...
640
00:56:38,720 --> 00:56:44,680
then it's entirely the wrong approach.
But that works out well for politicians.
641
00:56:46,120 --> 00:56:50,720
Can they keep that up, Cees?
Citizens are better informed now.
642
00:56:50,840 --> 00:56:56,440
There's a lot of know-how in society,
more than in the cabinet itself.
643
00:56:56,560 --> 00:57:02,680
So as you said, it sounds
as if they're talking to pre-schoolers.
644
00:57:02,800 --> 00:57:08,720
That's how it came across to me.
And it was all about fear, fear, fear.
645
00:57:08,840 --> 00:57:13,480
I know that if I run my business
through fear it won't work.
646
00:57:13,600 --> 00:57:16,400
The same goes for my family
and for schools.
647
00:57:16,520 --> 00:57:19,720
As far as I know,
only regimes do that. Dictators.
648
00:57:19,840 --> 00:57:24,040
So it seemed very strange.
But still that is what happened.
649
00:57:24,160 --> 00:57:27,840
It's understandable
given the third leg of the triangle.
650
00:57:27,960 --> 00:57:32,120
Cartels have the biggest interest,
politicians muddle along.
651
00:57:32,240 --> 00:57:35,880
And then there are the helpers,
the assistants.
652
00:57:36,000 --> 00:57:44,000
Those are the think-tanks, the lobbyists.
Politics is driven mainly by lobbyists.
653
00:57:44,120 --> 00:57:49,200
There's huge pressure on politicians.
That's why it's such a corrupt game.
654
00:57:49,320 --> 00:57:55,400
All the stakeholders except the public
know how to exert influence on them.
655
00:57:55,520 --> 00:58:01,560
And the key helpers in this case
especially have been the media.
656
00:58:01,680 --> 00:58:05,800
Helpers are needed
because decisions are made...
657
00:58:05,920 --> 00:58:11,120
not in the interests of the vast majority
but of the small minority.
658
00:58:11,240 --> 00:58:14,200
They give a justification.
659
00:58:18,520 --> 00:58:23,280
Ultimately, taking into account
everything that's going on here...
660
00:58:23,400 --> 00:58:27,040
you might wonder:
is this really about public health?
661
00:59:08,080 --> 00:59:12,280
It's wonderful
to be able to help your children grow.
662
00:59:12,400 --> 00:59:17,000
You can only do it if they accept it,
if they're okay with it.
663
00:59:17,120 --> 00:59:20,040
It's great to work together so much.
664
00:59:22,240 --> 00:59:28,240
I see my father as hard-working,
inspiring...
665
00:59:28,360 --> 00:59:30,600
and always busy, always on the go.
666
00:59:37,400 --> 00:59:39,960
Here, Max. They came in here.
-Yes.
667
00:59:40,080 --> 00:59:42,600
More headlights.
-I've got some more.
668
00:59:44,080 --> 00:59:47,520
Let's see if they look good.
-Yes. Nice, right?
669
00:59:51,160 --> 00:59:55,440
Let's look at the production
of the pistons and cylinders there.
670
00:59:57,160 --> 01:00:00,120
I'll put this one back and open that one.
671
01:00:02,360 --> 01:00:09,560
I was at home and I got a phone call from
my father. He said: I don't feel well.
672
01:00:10,760 --> 01:00:13,600
Can you pick me up?
I said: Sure.
673
01:00:15,080 --> 01:00:19,080
Looking back, I drove there very fast.
674
01:00:19,200 --> 01:00:23,840
I couldn't explain it at the time,
but I had a feeling...
675
01:00:23,960 --> 01:00:26,720
I got there very quickly.
676
01:00:28,520 --> 01:00:35,000
When I got there I saw my father. He felt
very unwell and went to the bathroom.
677
01:00:36,160 --> 01:00:40,600
I thought: If he's feeling bad
maybe going to the bathroom will help.
678
01:00:40,720 --> 01:00:45,880
Maybe he ate something that disagreed
with him. Let's see how it goes.
679
01:00:50,960 --> 01:00:58,840
I got to the bathroom and thought: This
is bad, I have to make sure I don't faint.
680
01:01:00,200 --> 01:01:04,000
When he got back
I could see he was in a really bad way.
681
01:01:04,120 --> 01:01:10,160
And that it was much worse
than just something like a stomach upset.
682
01:01:12,880 --> 01:01:17,160
He could see that too.
I asked if I should call an ambulance.
683
01:01:17,280 --> 01:01:21,040
So we did that as fast as possible,
and it came.
684
01:01:24,320 --> 01:01:28,080
All the energy drained out of me.
I thought: This is it.
685
01:01:28,200 --> 01:01:34,320
For a moment I thought:
I can't believe that my son...
686
01:01:34,440 --> 01:01:38,040
is going to see me slip away here.
It just can't be.
687
01:01:52,640 --> 01:01:58,920
It turned out he was having a heart
attack. So the ambulance took him away.
688
01:01:59,040 --> 01:02:02,040
I drove as fast as I could
to the hospital.
689
01:02:03,800 --> 01:02:08,480
When I got to the cardiac ward
my father was just coming through.
690
01:02:08,600 --> 01:02:13,720
They were taking him to the operating
room. It was scary to see that.
691
01:02:13,840 --> 01:02:20,400
It shocked me, of course.
I could only hope that he would be okay.
692
01:02:21,600 --> 01:02:23,080
But I was sure he would.
693
01:02:33,280 --> 01:02:39,400
Two days later I was told the results.
A quarter of my heart had died off.
694
01:02:39,520 --> 01:02:46,200
But I had so much energy the next day that
I immediately flicked the mental switch.
695
01:02:46,320 --> 01:02:50,920
I thought: One quarter isn't okay,
but three quarters are okay.
696
01:02:51,040 --> 01:02:54,080
And I feel fine
so everything will be fine.
697
01:02:57,240 --> 01:03:00,440
Business is good,
we have a great management team.
698
01:03:00,560 --> 01:03:05,680
The nice thing is that it works
because you've set it up based on trust.
699
01:03:05,800 --> 01:03:09,680
That linked in well
with what happened around coronavirus.
700
01:03:09,800 --> 01:03:14,560
Politicians should trust society,
the way we do:
701
01:03:14,680 --> 01:03:18,840
I trust my team
and I trust our people's autonomy.
702
01:03:18,960 --> 01:03:23,160
They know what they need to do,
they like working that way.
703
01:03:24,160 --> 01:03:26,520
That's how you achieve success.
704
01:03:26,640 --> 01:03:31,640
But strangely, the government
did the opposite: No trust, no autonomy...
705
01:03:31,760 --> 01:03:33,440
restricting freedom.
706
01:03:33,560 --> 01:03:39,680
You see how important it is. Even if you
drop out, everything carries on as usual.
707
01:03:42,920 --> 01:03:47,080
That was the main thing
about the coronavirus story.
708
01:03:47,200 --> 01:03:52,600
I thought: Surely young people aren't
being locked down, losing their freedom...
709
01:03:52,720 --> 01:03:56,680
people aren't amassing debt
when there's no need?
710
01:03:56,800 --> 01:03:59,360
I understand exactly what he's saying.
711
01:03:59,480 --> 01:04:03,840
I know he's very motivated
and I'm glad he's doing it for us...
712
01:04:03,960 --> 01:04:08,640
and for society.
I have a lot of respect for that.
713
01:04:11,720 --> 01:04:16,440
It's fantastic
that my family is giving me the scope...
714
01:04:16,560 --> 01:04:23,160
to share what we all know with society,
to tell people about it.
715
01:04:24,640 --> 01:04:27,560
To say:
Guys, there's another way.
716
01:04:33,960 --> 01:04:39,360
Why is it our policy
that the only hope is a vaccine?
717
01:04:39,480 --> 01:04:42,840
In that case
there are other powers at play.
718
01:04:44,040 --> 01:04:47,160
So tell me, what do you think, Ad?
719
01:04:47,280 --> 01:04:53,000
What I think, very simply,
I see it very pragmatically:
720
01:04:53,120 --> 01:04:55,840
As long as we have
this financial system...
721
01:04:57,880 --> 01:05:00,520
things will not be okay for us.
722
01:05:05,840 --> 01:05:09,800
I think the coronavirus
is just one part...
723
01:05:09,920 --> 01:05:14,640
of an action
that has now been set in motion...
724
01:05:14,760 --> 01:05:20,240
that really just
pulls the strings tighter...
725
01:05:20,360 --> 01:05:24,360
from the position of those
who are in power at the moment...
726
01:05:24,480 --> 01:05:28,480
and who want to retain that power
whatever the cost...
727
01:05:28,600 --> 01:05:33,480
and who have certain ideas
about what to do with that power.
728
01:05:33,600 --> 01:05:38,080
Who have a vision of humanity
and the future of humanity...
729
01:05:38,200 --> 01:05:42,120
which they want to bring about in reality.
730
01:05:42,240 --> 01:05:47,240
A few people
are going to determine our future...
731
01:05:47,360 --> 01:05:51,800
effectively taking away
our right to self-determination.
732
01:05:51,920 --> 01:05:58,280
Effectively leading us towards a goal
set by them with no regard for us.
733
01:05:58,400 --> 01:06:02,600
So our autonomy...
-Coronavirus is being used for that.
734
01:06:02,720 --> 01:06:09,080
Here in the Netherlands,
about ten percent at most...
735
01:06:09,200 --> 01:06:13,320
own 75 percent
of everything there is to own.
736
01:06:13,440 --> 01:06:17,960
And that will increase even more sharply,
with what is going on now.
737
01:06:18,080 --> 01:06:23,280
By now it might be five percent
who own 75 percent.
738
01:06:23,400 --> 01:06:29,480
That process is accelerating now
as small businesses go under...
739
01:06:29,600 --> 01:06:35,400
and the self-employed go under.
All that's left are the big players.
740
01:06:37,360 --> 01:06:38,760
This is...
741
01:06:40,920 --> 01:06:45,600
nine thousand billion,
if every 50-euro note...
742
01:06:45,720 --> 01:06:50,880
represents 50 billion,
this is nine thousand billion euros.
743
01:06:51,000 --> 01:06:56,000
What are we doing here?
Let's go to the banking crisis first.
744
01:06:56,120 --> 01:07:01,720
In the banking crisis we built up
a 50-billion debt, roughly speaking.
745
01:07:01,840 --> 01:07:06,040
We had to cut costs for eight years
to get that back in order.
746
01:07:06,160 --> 01:07:11,120
In those eight years we also made cuts
in Intensive Care and healthcare...
747
01:07:11,240 --> 01:07:18,680
from 2,200 beds in 2015 to 1,100 beds.
They say healthcare is having problems.
748
01:07:18,800 --> 01:07:22,440
We caused that ourselves,
as we had to cut costs...
749
01:07:22,560 --> 01:07:27,720
because the banks, the financial sector,
had earned an awful lot of money.
750
01:07:27,840 --> 01:07:31,320
Moving ahead a step to 2020...
751
01:07:32,760 --> 01:07:35,240
with all the measures we're taking...
752
01:07:35,360 --> 01:07:39,280
we're heading towards one hundred billion
in debt.
753
01:07:40,320 --> 01:07:43,480
I understand that with a bit of a fight...
754
01:07:43,600 --> 01:07:48,960
two, three, four, five, six, seven.
Seven times.
755
01:07:49,080 --> 01:07:56,280
We have 750 euros. 750 billion,
I should say. I'll just put that here.
756
01:07:56,400 --> 01:08:04,280
It was created as the European fund
for the coronavirus. 750 billion.
757
01:08:04,400 --> 01:08:07,200
The remainder...
758
01:08:07,320 --> 01:08:12,040
is the money that has been earned
by the group you're talking about.
759
01:08:12,160 --> 01:08:17,160
PriceWaterhouseCoopers says: This
money is owned by the financial sector...
760
01:08:17,280 --> 01:08:24,560
and by the corporate states, by people
like Bill Gates and Elon Musk.
761
01:08:24,680 --> 01:08:27,560
There's no democracy,
no supervision there.
762
01:08:27,680 --> 01:08:30,640
It's not about the money they earn.
763
01:08:30,760 --> 01:08:36,240
Because one billion more or less
doesn't make any difference at that level.
764
01:08:36,360 --> 01:08:39,080
It's about it being sucked away from us.
765
01:08:40,520 --> 01:08:44,720
I want to demonstrate that.
Because if you look at this...
766
01:08:44,840 --> 01:08:47,960
You know this too, Ad.
-Literally sucked away.
767
01:08:48,080 --> 01:08:51,560
It's totally parasitic.
-It's incredible.
768
01:08:51,680 --> 01:08:55,280
Looking at
this 750-billion European fund...
769
01:08:55,400 --> 01:08:59,760
we fought with Italy, the European
states are squabbling about it.
770
01:09:00,760 --> 01:09:03,800
If you look at the debt we're amassing...
771
01:09:03,920 --> 01:09:07,800
for that 50 billion,
society will have to...
772
01:09:07,920 --> 01:09:13,760
It makes me angry because it's about
how money is distributed in the world.
773
01:09:13,880 --> 01:09:19,560
We have complex tax systems
and allowances to share it out fairly...
774
01:09:19,680 --> 01:09:24,320
but there's nothing fair about it.
And that 50-billion debt we had...
775
01:09:24,440 --> 01:09:31,000
meant eight years of hard work. By whom?
Citizens and SMEs, they're the ones...
776
01:09:31,120 --> 01:09:37,080
I'm one of them, an entrepreneur.
We're doing well so I pay top rate taxes.
777
01:09:37,200 --> 01:09:40,440
I don't mind that
because if I pay taxes...
778
01:09:40,560 --> 01:09:46,200
it pays for infrastructure, healthcare,
police, we can pay them a good salary.
779
01:09:46,320 --> 01:09:49,560
I pay it as a citizen
and SME business owner.
780
01:09:49,680 --> 01:09:56,400
But these guys pay almost no taxes.
They have the power to avoid taxes.
781
01:09:56,520 --> 01:09:59,400
They pay no tax at all.
-They pay no tax.
782
01:09:59,520 --> 01:10:03,520
So small businesses and citizens
work hard for eight years...
783
01:10:03,640 --> 01:10:10,160
The basis of this system, as I said,
is that tax is paid for the people.
784
01:10:10,280 --> 01:10:12,680
And the people pay.
-So...
785
01:10:12,800 --> 01:10:17,440
We've been given as security
for the repayment of the debt.
786
01:10:17,560 --> 01:10:22,240
And now with the coronavirus
we're taking on a debt of 100 billion.
787
01:10:22,360 --> 01:10:28,320
So for sixteen years, small businesses
and citizens will have to work for that.
788
01:10:28,440 --> 01:10:32,200
I want to leave behind
the idea that the state looks after us.
789
01:10:32,320 --> 01:10:34,600
The state has no money.
We do that.
790
01:10:34,720 --> 01:10:38,280
The state's money is our tax money.
-Yes.
791
01:10:38,400 --> 01:10:41,760
When they say
the government will help to pay...
792
01:10:41,880 --> 01:10:46,640
for any claims that may arise
from the vaccinations...
793
01:10:46,760 --> 01:10:50,800
the coronavirus vaccinations...
794
01:10:50,920 --> 01:10:57,000
There's now a guarantee
that the government will pay the claims.
795
01:10:57,120 --> 01:11:03,040
It's our money.
So we're paying for any claims.
796
01:11:03,160 --> 01:11:05,560
And that means...
797
01:11:05,680 --> 01:11:11,520
that the pharmaceutical industry
is fully exempt.
798
01:11:13,200 --> 01:11:20,960
Finance Minister Prof. Lieftinck
requests your attention.
799
01:11:21,080 --> 01:11:24,960
Compatriots,
this newsreel is intended...
800
01:11:25,080 --> 01:11:32,200
to better acquaint you
with pressing points of government policy.
801
01:11:32,320 --> 01:11:38,360
Pay close attention to the images
and think about them again at home.
802
01:11:38,480 --> 01:11:41,960
Government business is your business.
803
01:11:42,080 --> 01:11:46,840
The measures that must unavoidably
be taken for our country to recover...
804
01:11:46,960 --> 01:11:52,840
include the long-expected currency
reform, much desired by the government.
805
01:11:52,960 --> 01:11:54,480
So to sum up:
806
01:11:54,600 --> 01:11:59,960
For this pile of money no tax is paid
but there's no product liability either.
807
01:12:00,080 --> 01:12:04,880
Most of this money is going to biotech
and pharmaceutical companies.
808
01:12:05,000 --> 01:12:10,520
Since the swine flu in 2009 they've been
earning more than any other industry.
809
01:12:10,640 --> 01:12:18,320
Yes, but again, it's not about that. They
already have a colossal amount of money.
810
01:12:18,440 --> 01:12:24,040
You simply can't imagine how much money
is available at the highest level.
811
01:12:24,160 --> 01:12:27,720
It's not about that.
-It's about the distribution.
812
01:12:27,840 --> 01:12:31,440
It's about it not being distributed.
813
01:12:31,560 --> 01:12:37,800
It's actually about the real economy
being bled dry.
814
01:12:37,920 --> 01:12:43,800
If you look at the purchasing power
of the average person in recent years...
815
01:12:43,920 --> 01:12:50,640
it has decreased dramatically. Why?
Because wages are barely rising...
816
01:12:50,760 --> 01:12:56,520
benefits are barely rising, pensions
aren't rising, they've been frozen.
817
01:12:56,640 --> 01:13:04,200
But costs are going up. Housing costs,
energy costs. Healthcare costs.
818
01:13:04,320 --> 01:13:06,560
It's all going up and up and up.
819
01:13:06,680 --> 01:13:11,560
So the pressure on citizens
is growing and growing...
820
01:13:11,680 --> 01:13:17,920
and the means to live a reasonable life
under that pressure...
821
01:13:18,040 --> 01:13:23,280
are constantly shrinking. There must
already be an awful lot of households...
822
01:13:23,400 --> 01:13:27,440
that can only afford the bare necessities.
823
01:13:27,560 --> 01:13:30,400
Anything beyond that
they can't do any more.
824
01:13:30,520 --> 01:13:37,640
The people with political power
don't have that problem.
825
01:13:37,760 --> 01:13:44,000
For now, they still get enough out of the
tax trough to afford a good lifestyle.
826
01:13:44,120 --> 01:13:48,800
So they don't understand the problem,
or don't want to, or ignore it.
827
01:13:48,920 --> 01:13:52,880
More and more Dutch people
are facing severe problems.
828
01:13:53,000 --> 01:13:56,280
And not just in the Netherlands,
elsewhere, too.
829
01:13:56,400 --> 01:14:00,720
And it's been deliberately orchestrated...
830
01:14:00,840 --> 01:14:04,080
so they can impose their will
through money.
831
01:14:04,200 --> 01:14:09,760
Here's the money and the power.
Correct me if I'm wrong, Ad:
832
01:14:09,880 --> 01:14:15,120
Suppose that like us...
I have companies in Belgium and France...
833
01:14:15,240 --> 01:14:21,880
and we all have about the same tax rates.
On average I pay about 50 percent tax.
834
01:14:22,000 --> 01:14:24,520
In the other countries too.
835
01:14:24,640 --> 01:14:30,600
If we made these people over here
pay taxes, which should be the norm.
836
01:14:30,720 --> 01:14:33,880
I'm not talking about past taxes
they never paid.
837
01:14:34,000 --> 01:14:39,440
But if we make them pay half worldwide,
that's this much.
838
01:14:39,560 --> 01:14:45,960
So if we say, 'You have to pay tax like
everyone else', and we distribute this...
839
01:14:46,080 --> 01:14:49,680
nobody would have money problems.
There's no need.
840
01:14:49,800 --> 01:14:54,840
Basically with half of this they could
pay off all the coronavirus debt.
841
01:14:54,960 --> 01:15:00,720
All of it. If that money were freed up
we'd have no more poverty in the world.
842
01:15:00,840 --> 01:15:04,360
That poverty is deliberately maintained.
843
01:15:04,480 --> 01:15:09,040
It is maintained based on the fact
that we have a system...
844
01:15:09,160 --> 01:15:14,280
in which self-interest
and greed and power-seeking...
845
01:15:14,400 --> 01:15:22,560
are rewarded, facilitated. I don't see
the people in those positions...
846
01:15:22,680 --> 01:15:26,720
who are so incredibly rich,
with a few exceptions...
847
01:15:26,840 --> 01:15:31,920
voluntarily giving up that position.
It's not even about the money.
848
01:15:32,040 --> 01:15:35,320
It's purely about the position of power.
849
01:15:35,440 --> 01:15:40,320
Because power corrupts
and a lot of power corrupts massively.
850
01:15:40,440 --> 01:15:45,240
This is fascinating to see, Ad.
Because as you say...
851
01:15:45,360 --> 01:15:50,080
I've only looked at the eight months
in the coronavirus period.
852
01:15:50,200 --> 01:15:54,280
That means in thirty years
this group has earned a lot of money.
853
01:15:54,400 --> 01:15:57,600
Calculate it over three centuries.
-Exactly.
854
01:15:57,720 --> 01:16:02,600
You're going even further back.
-You're showing a simple example...
855
01:16:02,720 --> 01:16:10,040
of how it adds up in a short time. If you
take that back three centuries or more...
856
01:16:10,160 --> 01:16:15,040
which is the period
that these practices have been possible...
857
01:16:15,160 --> 01:16:19,080
it's easy to conclude
that there are a few people...
858
01:16:19,200 --> 01:16:23,040
who have so much
that it's possible to imagine.
859
01:16:23,160 --> 01:16:28,560
The difference between rich and poor
keeps growing, in the Netherlands too.
860
01:16:28,680 --> 01:16:31,520
This study looked at 2,000 billionaires...
861
01:16:31,640 --> 01:16:36,000
especially those who run biotech,
data and pharmaceuticals.
862
01:16:36,120 --> 01:16:38,280
Bill Gates and so on, as we said.
863
01:16:38,400 --> 01:16:43,600
It's interesting to see, like you said,
it's been going on much longer.
864
01:16:43,720 --> 01:16:46,240
So we need to break this pattern.
865
01:16:46,360 --> 01:16:50,760
Then there would be no problem with debt
and we could also...
866
01:16:50,880 --> 01:16:55,600
But not within this system.
-Then how, Ad? What's your view?
867
01:16:55,720 --> 01:17:01,720
We need to get rid of this system.
This financial system took shape...
868
01:17:01,840 --> 01:17:04,320
over three centuries ago.
869
01:17:04,440 --> 01:17:11,320
It was set up
in the interests of the ruling class.
870
01:17:11,440 --> 01:17:16,960
It was set up as a system
to make money available...
871
01:17:17,080 --> 01:17:24,200
for the kings and the nobility so that
they could finance their operations...
872
01:17:24,320 --> 01:17:28,720
and finance their lifestyle.
873
01:17:28,840 --> 01:17:35,480
It was never actually meant
for the people.
874
01:17:35,600 --> 01:17:41,240
The people were the ones
who had to pay off the debts...
875
01:17:41,360 --> 01:17:44,200
incurred by the king and the nobility.
876
01:17:45,600 --> 01:17:49,320
We need to get out of this system
and move to a different one.
877
01:17:49,440 --> 01:17:53,920
Because the system we're in now
is simply not good for us.
878
01:17:54,040 --> 01:17:56,640
It's a destructive financial system.
879
01:17:56,760 --> 01:17:59,920
I think
people should do their own research...
880
01:18:00,040 --> 01:18:03,680
and make the link
between what we've discussed now...
881
01:18:03,800 --> 01:18:08,720
about money and power and positions
of power and what's done with them...
882
01:18:08,840 --> 01:18:14,440
and the effect that has
in society and in politics.
883
01:18:18,920 --> 01:18:24,720
We're on our way to see Bob.
He's a strategist.
884
01:18:24,840 --> 01:18:30,080
He focuses mainly on the age
we're currently in, on capitalism.
885
01:18:30,200 --> 01:18:36,480
And the fact that we're transitioning
to biotech and data technology.
886
01:18:36,600 --> 01:18:44,000
Lots of people aren't really aware of it
but past history too has shown...
887
01:18:44,120 --> 01:18:50,040
that when you move into a new age
a power vacuum of sorts occurs.
888
01:18:50,160 --> 01:18:53,960
We're going to talk about that.
It's interesting...
889
01:18:54,080 --> 01:18:59,240
because the power that is in place
wants to hold on to that.
890
01:18:59,360 --> 01:19:04,040
That is what's going on,
if you look at how capitalism...
891
01:19:04,160 --> 01:19:07,760
is making way
for biotech and data technology.
892
01:19:12,120 --> 01:19:17,280
So we need a new system and we need
to move to a new social structure.
893
01:19:17,400 --> 01:19:21,720
Many digital technologies
make it possible to create a new society.
894
01:19:21,840 --> 01:19:28,600
We're in the intermediate zone, the vacuum
between the industrial age behind us...
895
01:19:28,720 --> 01:19:31,280
and the digital age we've moved into.
896
01:19:31,400 --> 01:19:37,160
We're figuring out how to do things
and what the new rules should be.
897
01:19:37,280 --> 01:19:41,760
We keep repeating old rules.
Really we should start afresh...
898
01:19:41,880 --> 01:19:46,160
and think about how to make a new society
with these new factors.
899
01:19:46,280 --> 01:19:51,960
The factors are technology, capital,
a lot of data.
900
01:19:52,080 --> 01:19:56,400
There are different factors at play
so you need to make a new society.
901
01:19:56,520 --> 01:20:03,880
The platform you talked about is based
on technology and digitalisation...
902
01:20:04,000 --> 01:20:08,800
but it's still primarily
about making money, the shareholders.
903
01:20:08,920 --> 01:20:11,040
They're really skyrocketing.
904
01:20:11,160 --> 01:20:15,600
We can see all around us
that these are very big companies...
905
01:20:15,720 --> 01:20:20,240
earning so much money that it's more
than individual countries earn.
906
01:20:20,360 --> 01:20:26,120
Who controls that? I believe
you have called them corporate states.
907
01:20:26,240 --> 01:20:28,320
Yes, corporate states.
908
01:20:28,440 --> 01:20:33,480
At the end of the industrial age
and the start of the digital age...
909
01:20:33,600 --> 01:20:38,560
capitalism continued, that's how
the new technologies were built.
910
01:20:38,680 --> 01:20:44,280
The really big tech companies are so big,
they're becoming so powerful...
911
01:20:44,400 --> 01:20:47,040
they're more powerful than countries.
912
01:20:47,160 --> 01:20:52,400
For a very long time
our society was set up in such a way...
913
01:20:52,520 --> 01:20:56,320
that rules were made
by society, politicians, countries.
914
01:20:56,440 --> 01:21:02,480
They made laws, and businesses
had to adapt to the laws to operate there.
915
01:21:02,600 --> 01:21:06,720
That only works if countries
are more powerful than companies.
916
01:21:06,840 --> 01:21:12,600
I call them 'corporate states' because
they're bigger and more powerful...
917
01:21:12,720 --> 01:21:18,240
than most countries. Countries
like the Netherlands, Belgium or France...
918
01:21:18,360 --> 01:21:25,560
have become relatively too small to hold
their own against those big companies.
919
01:21:25,680 --> 01:21:31,720
Corporate states behave like states.
They have their own rules and conditions.
920
01:21:31,840 --> 01:21:37,200
They decide where to go, whether to pay
tax. They're deciding more and more.
921
01:21:37,320 --> 01:21:42,200
And countries have to adapt to what
corporate states see as their interests.
922
01:21:42,320 --> 01:21:44,680
Those are still partly capitalist.
923
01:21:46,560 --> 01:21:52,480
We have to realise that a lot of things
are going to become uncertain.
924
01:21:52,600 --> 01:21:57,520
A lot will change, and the virus
is actually the least of the problems.
925
01:22:00,400 --> 01:22:05,480
We're in transition and the politics of
the old age doesn't work in the new age.
926
01:22:05,600 --> 01:22:13,240
Major players are making use of this
period to safeguard their interests.
927
01:22:13,360 --> 01:22:20,280
There is polarisation and tension in
society, it's not one big civic movement.
928
01:22:20,400 --> 01:22:25,720
If we want to get through this
to a new period and get out of the fear...
929
01:22:25,840 --> 01:22:30,440
we need to decide to do it together,
to help each other...
930
01:22:30,560 --> 01:22:35,080
and overcome our differences
and create a better society.
931
01:22:36,120 --> 01:22:41,120
If we don't take that decision to create
a better society, to unite citizens...
932
01:22:41,240 --> 01:22:48,520
we'll create scope for parties that
want to exploit the uncertain period...
933
01:22:48,640 --> 01:22:50,720
and the tensions that arise.
934
01:22:50,840 --> 01:22:58,080
It's up to citizens to decide to step up,
to unite so we can make something good.
935
01:22:58,200 --> 01:23:01,000
If not, there are powerful forces
at work...
936
01:23:01,120 --> 01:23:04,400
that will take the opportunity
to exploit things.
937
01:23:04,520 --> 01:23:07,640
That's the crossroads we are at.
938
01:23:07,760 --> 01:23:11,160
We must make that choice,
not let others make it for us.
939
01:23:12,400 --> 01:23:17,960
There has to be inequality in society
so that people work for a better life.
940
01:23:18,080 --> 01:23:25,160
That's what is known as
'just right inequality'.
941
01:23:25,280 --> 01:23:29,000
But too much inequality
creates discontent.
942
01:23:29,120 --> 01:23:33,880
We've seen that happen several times
in the past few centuries.
943
01:23:34,000 --> 01:23:40,400
That led to the First World War,
discontent about too much inequality.
944
01:23:40,520 --> 01:23:43,840
The best example may be
the Storming of the Bastille.
945
01:23:43,960 --> 01:23:50,400
At the time, the French king
had a very extravagant lifestyle.
946
01:23:50,520 --> 01:23:54,840
He cared about nothing and life
got worse and worse for the citizens.
947
01:23:54,960 --> 01:24:02,080
He behaved increasingly badly. Then the
very popular finance minister was fired.
948
01:24:02,200 --> 01:24:07,720
That led to the people's revolt
and the Storming of the Bastille.
949
01:24:07,840 --> 01:24:13,520
So when the inequality between
rich and poor becomes too great...
950
01:24:13,640 --> 01:24:17,120
a countermovement emerges
in civil society.
951
01:24:17,240 --> 01:24:21,000
That can play out smoothly
or become a revolution.
952
01:24:25,480 --> 01:24:30,360
The way things are distributed now
it's starting to head in that direction.
953
01:24:30,480 --> 01:24:33,280
The gap between rich and poor is growing.
954
01:24:33,400 --> 01:24:36,640
A few families
own a large part of the whole.
955
01:24:36,760 --> 01:24:39,000
A few companies hold the most power.
956
01:24:39,120 --> 01:24:44,480
Then there are all the masses
with little power and little money.
957
01:24:44,600 --> 01:24:48,040
The gap becomes ever greater,
the rich become richer.
958
01:24:48,160 --> 01:24:54,760
That gives rise to unrest and tensions.
You can feel it happening in society.
959
01:25:08,560 --> 01:25:10,880
The Italians are deeply worried.
960
01:25:11,000 --> 01:25:17,560
In spring the government promised money
to people who were forced to stay at home.
961
01:25:17,680 --> 01:25:23,960
Only part of the money was paid out.
A lot got lost in Italian bureaucracy.
962
01:25:24,080 --> 01:25:27,680
So a lot of people
never received any money.
963
01:25:27,800 --> 01:25:32,800
Hundreds of thousands of them are still
waiting for unemployment benefits...
964
01:25:32,920 --> 01:25:38,480
from the spring,
from June, July, some even from May.
965
01:25:38,600 --> 01:25:42,200
About 20,000 people
have received nothing at all yet.
966
01:25:42,320 --> 01:25:46,760
So they are facing
serious financial problems.
967
01:25:46,880 --> 01:25:52,080
That's why people are obeying the rules
less in the second wave.
968
01:25:52,200 --> 01:25:59,560
They're more afraid about their financial
situation than the virus itself.
969
01:25:59,680 --> 01:26:06,000
There are demonstrations
almost every day at the moment.
970
01:26:06,120 --> 01:26:11,120
They often get out of hand
because people are desperate.
971
01:26:11,240 --> 01:26:16,880
They think: I've got nothing to lose.
I have to work or I won't earn anything.
972
01:26:17,000 --> 01:26:20,600
The Italian benefit system
isn't as well developed...
973
01:26:20,720 --> 01:26:23,720
as for example in the Netherlands
and Germany.
974
01:26:23,840 --> 01:26:28,240
That means that people who don't work
have no income...
975
01:26:28,360 --> 01:26:34,160
and often have serious financial problems,
they're even going hungry.
976
01:26:34,280 --> 01:26:38,840
There are stories that in cities
like Naples, and Palermo in Sicily...
977
01:26:38,960 --> 01:26:42,800
people are going hungry
because they have no money.
978
01:26:42,920 --> 01:26:49,360
That's making this second wave
different from the first wave in January.
979
01:26:49,480 --> 01:26:55,360
People are more concerned about their
financial situation than the virus itself.
980
01:27:06,320 --> 01:27:09,680
The ice boat
is far faster than the summer boat...
981
01:27:09,800 --> 01:27:12,600
from the mainland
to the island of Marken.
982
01:27:12,720 --> 01:27:17,360
There has recently even been a service
from Monnickendam to the island.
983
01:27:17,480 --> 01:27:23,520
Outside the harbour the ice boat glides
swiftly over the smooth Gouwzee.
984
01:27:23,640 --> 01:27:25,040
It's not a busy route.
985
01:27:26,920 --> 01:27:29,600
Within half an hour
the island is in sight.
986
01:27:29,720 --> 01:27:34,240
The connection was good until
the thaw started. Then it all changed.
987
01:27:34,360 --> 01:27:39,440
Marken became isolated, as transport
was impossible on the weak ice.
988
01:27:39,560 --> 01:27:45,240
The ice broke up. The strong westerly
wind drove the ice up onto the dyke...
989
01:27:45,360 --> 01:27:48,880
as far as the houses.
Some jetties were crushed.
990
01:27:51,000 --> 01:27:56,640
There was a risk that in a flu epidemic
help would be unable to reach Marken.
991
01:27:56,760 --> 01:28:01,880
So Dr Pasdeloup, the local doctor,
asked the inhabitants to get vaccinated.
992
01:28:02,000 --> 01:28:05,120
They responded to the request
in large numbers.
993
01:28:12,920 --> 01:28:16,480
Dr Pasdeloup's surgery
had never been so busy.
994
01:28:25,880 --> 01:28:31,240
One by one, hundreds of islanders
aged twelve and up came for the injection.
995
01:28:35,720 --> 01:28:41,320
There are two scenarios or different
kinds of society we're moving towards:
996
01:28:41,440 --> 01:28:48,400
In one society, the one percent
gain even more power and money.
997
01:28:48,520 --> 01:28:53,800
It is the elite, the one percent,
who like in feudal times are the masters.
998
01:28:53,920 --> 01:28:59,960
That's an elite society. The ordinary
citizens have to fend for themselves.
999
01:29:00,080 --> 01:29:04,760
That's one scenario. In the other
scenario, and history has shown this...
1000
01:29:04,880 --> 01:29:10,560
in other cases like the extravagant king,
a social countermovement emerges.
1001
01:29:10,680 --> 01:29:15,760
You see it happening, entrepreneurs
and citizens creating a countermovement.
1002
01:29:15,880 --> 01:29:22,840
There are bottom-up citizens' groups
in the Netherlands who've had enough.
1003
01:29:22,960 --> 01:29:28,120
They want more of a civil society.
So our society has two movements:
1004
01:29:28,240 --> 01:29:33,280
The elite side and the civil side.
The question is: Who will win?
1005
01:29:33,400 --> 01:29:35,680
I don't know that, of course.
1006
01:29:35,800 --> 01:29:39,920
But they are two models
taking shape side by side.
1007
01:29:40,040 --> 01:29:45,640
In the past, whenever the group
of citizens, the movement, grew too big...
1008
01:29:45,760 --> 01:29:51,600
a real force emerged.
Because ultimately the civil majority...
1009
01:29:51,720 --> 01:29:54,560
will always beat a small elite...
1010
01:29:54,680 --> 01:29:58,680
even if they have access to key
technologies, money and so on...
1011
01:29:58,800 --> 01:30:01,960
it's very likely the citizens will win.
1012
01:30:02,080 --> 01:30:06,880
So I think that in the coming years,
first some tensions will arise...
1013
01:30:07,000 --> 01:30:13,680
between the two models, elite and civil,
and of course polarisation doesn't help...
1014
01:30:13,800 --> 01:30:17,920
That will happen too.
-Yes, polarisation in the civil movement.
1015
01:30:18,040 --> 01:30:22,080
As a result it's not strong enough to act
or provide opposition.
1016
01:30:22,200 --> 01:30:24,440
They're not really united.
-No.
1017
01:30:24,560 --> 01:30:28,000
And there are some people
who want to keep it that way.
1018
01:30:28,120 --> 01:30:30,880
But if we can create a civil movement...
1019
01:30:31,000 --> 01:30:37,680
that says: We don't want this. We want to
get back to what matters. To friendship...
1020
01:30:37,800 --> 01:30:43,800
being close, having fun, having parties,
normal human things.
1021
01:30:43,920 --> 01:30:48,720
If we all agree that we want to go back
to a humane society...
1022
01:30:48,840 --> 01:30:51,360
that movement can provide opposition.
1023
01:30:51,480 --> 01:30:56,360
The good news in all this is that
the technology we're talking about...
1024
01:30:56,480 --> 01:31:02,040
digital technology, biotech,
a number of technological developments...
1025
01:31:02,160 --> 01:31:06,960
the platforms you mentioned, blockchains,
artificial intelligence...
1026
01:31:07,080 --> 01:31:13,680
they can make the elite more powerful
but they can also empower the citizens.
1027
01:31:13,800 --> 01:31:17,880
The technology is neutral,
it depends on how we use it.
1028
01:31:21,120 --> 01:31:27,680
We can use technology to create
a decentralised, local economy.
1029
01:31:27,800 --> 01:31:31,880
With solar panels and wind
we can generate our own energy.
1030
01:31:32,000 --> 01:31:36,560
We don't need companies for that,
local societies can do it together.
1031
01:31:36,680 --> 01:31:40,280
There are robots to make strawberries
and tomatoes.
1032
01:31:40,400 --> 01:31:43,680
You can automate
vegetable and fruit production.
1033
01:31:43,800 --> 01:31:48,240
We're developing cultured meat,
all kinds of technologies...
1034
01:31:48,360 --> 01:31:51,840
that make it possible
for local communities...
1035
01:31:51,960 --> 01:31:55,600
to function
without the need for the big companies.
1036
01:31:55,720 --> 01:31:58,840
The question is: Will it go that way?
1037
01:31:58,960 --> 01:32:04,680
Or will our generations have to work
even harder due to the coronavirus debt?
1038
01:32:04,800 --> 01:32:07,880
We have to change the economic model.
-How?
1039
01:32:08,000 --> 01:32:13,320
That's the old industrial model.
You work, get paid, provide a service.
1040
01:32:13,440 --> 01:32:17,320
Wellbeing is financed by that model.
1041
01:32:17,440 --> 01:32:23,080
That industrial model will be replaced
by a whole new economic model...
1042
01:32:23,200 --> 01:32:26,920
in which we're less dependent
on those kinds of parties.
1043
01:32:30,080 --> 01:32:34,040
In times like that there's always someone
who thinks: Hah!
1044
01:32:34,160 --> 01:32:36,760
There's a vacuum, people are confused.
1045
01:32:36,880 --> 01:32:42,280
And they try to use that for their own
gain, to get power or money.
1046
01:32:42,400 --> 01:32:48,960
Things often go wrong then. It's a
pattern but it has never succeeded yet.
1047
01:32:49,080 --> 01:32:52,880
In the past
companies were located in a country.
1048
01:32:53,000 --> 01:32:56,800
The big issues and companies
are no longer in a country.
1049
01:32:56,920 --> 01:33:00,200
It's all global.
-The world is their playing field.
1050
01:33:00,320 --> 01:33:06,480
And many big issues are global issues.
They used to be national issues.
1051
01:33:06,600 --> 01:33:10,960
The climate is a global issue.
The Netherlands can't solve it.
1052
01:33:11,080 --> 01:33:18,240
Healthcare is a global issue. More and
more issues now cross over borders...
1053
01:33:18,360 --> 01:33:24,240
onto the world stage. But there's
no democracy on the world stage.
1054
01:33:24,360 --> 01:33:30,160
The big companies aren't democracies.
Nongovernmental organisations...
1055
01:33:30,280 --> 01:33:36,080
act as the public bodies looking after
the environment, health and education.
1056
01:33:36,200 --> 01:33:38,560
But they're not democracies either.
1057
01:33:38,680 --> 01:33:42,880
Then there are a number
of big global investors, as you said.
1058
01:33:43,000 --> 01:33:49,880
And a number of global charities. In my
view, what most of them are doing is good.
1059
01:33:50,000 --> 01:33:53,080
Like Greenpeace,
whatever you may think of them.
1060
01:33:53,200 --> 01:33:58,320
You may not agree with them but they
really believe in what they're doing.
1061
01:33:58,440 --> 01:34:02,520
That's how most of those
organisations are. But not all of them.
1062
01:34:16,600 --> 01:34:18,320
Loosen the right side.
1063
01:34:18,440 --> 01:34:22,680
What really astonished me
is that the scientists...
1064
01:34:22,800 --> 01:34:27,720
who didn't have an interest in pharma
didn't get to speak...
1065
01:34:27,840 --> 01:34:32,640
although they had a strong story, the
same as ours. That goes for doctors too.
1066
01:34:32,760 --> 01:34:37,760
It's always tricky for doctors,
it's hard for them to speak up.
1067
01:34:37,880 --> 01:34:42,680
I've seen in this research
that the people who made the decisions...
1068
01:34:42,800 --> 01:34:48,240
and that wasn't 193 countries,
it was a few people in the WHO...
1069
01:34:48,360 --> 01:34:53,200
and some important virologists
around important politicians:
1070
01:34:53,320 --> 01:34:58,520
Mr Drosten, a virologist
who invented the PCR test.
1071
01:34:58,640 --> 01:35:03,360
He has shares in his own company
so he has a strong interest in this.
1072
01:35:03,480 --> 01:35:07,600
Fauci too has a big interest in pharma
in America.
1073
01:35:07,720 --> 01:35:13,720
Ferguson in England and Ab Osterhaus
in the Netherlands have a big interest.
1074
01:35:13,840 --> 01:35:21,520
I don't understand why, when we seek
advice about public health, our health...
1075
01:35:21,640 --> 01:35:26,360
these are the kinds of people that
are chosen to tell us what we should do.
1076
01:35:26,480 --> 01:35:30,000
If you scare people enough,
they can't think straight.
1077
01:35:30,120 --> 01:35:34,320
This experiment in fear
has been going on for seven months now.
1078
01:35:34,440 --> 01:35:39,360
It will be a big problem
trying to reverse that in due course.
1079
01:35:39,480 --> 01:35:41,560
It's not going to be easy.
1080
01:35:43,680 --> 01:35:48,000
If we'd acted on what we found out
at the end of April...
1081
01:35:48,120 --> 01:35:54,360
we would have incurred under a third
of the debt we have now. Maybe even less.
1082
01:35:54,480 --> 01:35:56,520
We'd have had fewer deaths too.
1083
01:35:56,640 --> 01:36:02,640
We'd have protected care homes right
away, where most deaths occurred.
1084
01:36:02,760 --> 01:36:09,160
They're doing it again in this second
wave: fear, panic, a kind of experiment.
1085
01:36:09,280 --> 01:36:14,320
Just because the ray of hope is a vaccine.
That's the cause of all the trouble.
1086
01:36:27,440 --> 01:36:32,360
During our research
an article came in from The Lancet.
1087
01:36:32,480 --> 01:36:36,960
The Lancet
is a leading scientific journal.
1088
01:36:37,080 --> 01:36:41,880
In it, they drew the same conclusion
that we drew:
1089
01:36:42,000 --> 01:36:47,800
That it's a syndemic.
Of course, that needs a bit of explaining.
1090
01:36:49,120 --> 01:36:54,600
A syndemic means that you have
two conditions at the same time.
1091
01:36:54,720 --> 01:36:58,960
In this case we had the virus, of course:
COVID-19.
1092
01:37:00,480 --> 01:37:03,240
It turned out that in addition...
1093
01:37:03,360 --> 01:37:09,800
the people who were vulnerable
all had underlying conditions.
1094
01:37:09,920 --> 01:37:16,920
We know now what they are. They can be
cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes.
1095
01:37:17,040 --> 01:37:21,360
So mainly lifestyle diseases
and mainly related to obesity.
1096
01:37:22,880 --> 01:37:27,640
If you have both those things
at the same time it's called a syndemic.
1097
01:37:27,760 --> 01:37:34,240
In some cases they can exacerbate each
other. And that's when the problems start.
1098
01:37:34,360 --> 01:37:37,800
So what we're dealing with is a syndemic.
1099
01:37:37,920 --> 01:37:41,360
Research has shown
that 98 percent of people...
1100
01:37:41,480 --> 01:37:46,640
are unaffected or barely. It's really
about the 2 percent that are vulnerable.
1101
01:37:46,760 --> 01:37:49,440
We must do all we can to protect them.
1102
01:37:51,000 --> 01:37:55,840
But for the rest? It's now clear
that all the measures were unnecessary.
1103
01:37:55,960 --> 01:38:00,320
We wasted so much money
and it simply wasn't necessary.
1104
01:38:01,680 --> 01:38:04,800
We must stop this right now
and get back to normal.
104084
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get subtitles in any language from opensubtitles.com, and translate them here.