Today’s edition of de Volkskrant has a report on the “unstoppable flood of emails on the alleged toxicity of the (A)H1N1 vaccine.”

The paper writes that concerned mothers are giving flu lectures across the country, and action group "De spuit blijft eruit" (meaning "the needle stays out") is distributing postcards with traffic prohibition signs covered in Mexican hats (In the Netherlands, the (A)H1N1 virus is commonly known as the Mexican flu). On the prikmaarlek.nl (meaning "jab me full of holes") website, visitors can sign a ‘declaration of resistance’, while in the town of Ommen a report has been filed of an intended crime against life.

Since the start of the vaccination campaign, flu experts, politicians and media workers have been flooded with a deluge of ‘extremely urgent’ emails full of ‘shocking information’ allegedly proving that there is a deliberate campaign to hush up the fact that the (A)H1N1 vaccine is toxic. Why this should be so is not exactly clear, but many of the emails point to international websites about similar alleged cover-ups involving vaccines against other infectious diseases. Some people believe the vaccine includes a nano-chip which would turn citizens into slaves. And the World Health Organisation allegedly forms part of an international crime syndicate out to decimate the global population through a mass vaccination programme.

Virology Professor Louis Kroes of the Leids Universitair Medisch Centrum (Leiden University Hospital) says he is deeply concerned about the ‘dubious documents’ he has received in his inbox. He says he hopes most rational people will disregard the wild conspiracy theories, but at the same time sees all around him how the ‘absurd allegations’ make people doubt whether they should get vaccinated. “I’m astounded by the large number of questions I have received from fellow professors, friends and relatives who all wanted to know whether it was wise to get vaccinated.” He adds: “This flu is much more dangerous than any side effect whatsoever. If you are in a high-risk group vaccination is always sensible”

The exact components of the vaccines can be found on the website of the European registration authority Emea.  

National ‘football scum’ register
AD reports that players of amateur clubs who misbehave in or near the pitch and are suspended for a year or more will in future be included on the ‘lijst landelijk voetbalverbod’ (national football ban register). The measure is intended to make it impossible for ‘football scum’ (or voetbaltuig in Dutch) to play anywhere in the Netherlands during their suspension.

At present, players who are suspended by their clubs after serious misbehaviour often join another club and keep right on playing. The new measure is just the latest of a series of initiatives implemented by the KNVB (Royal Dutch Football Union) to eradicate fights, threats and assaults on amateur football fields. The union regularly sends observers to clubs where things often get out of hand, and clubs and teams are quickly removed from the national competition if they fail to improve.

Each year, about 200 referees are assaulted and 2,700 matches broken off. In a case in point at the weekend, a match between Simonshaven and Vlotbrug in the south-western town of Hellevoetsluis got completely out of hand. Shortly after the start of the match, a fight broke out in which a player was pushed to the ground and kicked and beaten. He broke his nose and arm and had to be admitted to hospital. A 28-year old player of the Simonshaven 6 team has been arrested. In October, the entire team of football club VV Gestel A1 was arrested after beating up a player of the opposing team. In August, the association of referees in the eastern region of Twente refused any longer to send referees to matches including the club Enschedese Boys, after ‘the Boys’ beat up a referee. 

Many football club executives blame much of the violence on the poor quality of many referees, and KNVB director for amateur football Ruud Bruijnis admits that part of the problem lies with the about 17,000 referees in amateur football, “Forty percent have taken a course. We have the ambitious plan to increase the percentage to 100 in the coming years.” 

Judges to stay on after ‘mistakes’
In the free newspaper De Pers, Hoge Raad (Supreme Court) President Geert Corstens says “Wrong decisions can never be grounds for the dismissal of judges”. Mr Corstens has joined the debate sparked by the escape of a convicted people trafficker who was granted prison leave to visit his newborn child. The court responsible for the decision admitted its mistake, leading to calls in parliament for the dismissal of blundering judges. However, the president of the Hoge Raad rejects these calls saying: “When a judge is completely dysfunctional, fails to appear at court sessions or drives under the influence, sanctions will be imposed. Wrong decisions can never be grounds for dismissal. That’s what appeals and annulments are for.”

According to Mr Corstens, the question is: who would rule on a judge’s mistake and would judges still feel free to pass rulings? He is also opposed to judges being sacked when they themselves admit to having made a mistake: “As a judge, I would have to constantly take into consideration: Oh, well, this might just turn out to be a wrong decision. It would make me very cautious and spell the end of the independent administration of justice.” Geert Corstens believes the judiciary is quite capable of monitoring the quality of its judges, which sometimes includes requests for external advice. “Eventually, it is up to the judiciary to take action. There should be no pressure on the judge.”

DNA unknown
In nrc.next, psychologist Martine Delfos takes a long, hard and critical look at the latest show produced by Christian broadcasting corporation NCRV. The show, called DNA Unknown, uses DNA testing to find out whether the participants’ relatives are really their relatives.

According to Ms Delfos, television is slowly dying because most young people spend most of their time on the internet instead of watching TV. The viewing public is getting older and older and television producers must go all out to attract viewers, if necessary by pandering to viewers’ love of schadenfreude, in this case gloating at other people’s painful secrets.

The producers tell their audience that they needn’t worry because the participants are volunteers who agreed to everything that’s being broadcast, but Ms Delfos says she knows from her professional experience that people often don’t realise what they agree to. In practice, most people need years to come to terms with the fact that the man who raised them is not their real father. Martine Delfos says that condensing the process into a format intended to amuse an audience can cause real damage to those involved. She says: “How strong do you have to be to say no to DNA testing? How strong do you have to be to say no to television?”

According to the psychologist, the details of the body language and the intonation of the presenter’s voice show that it’s the viewers who occupy centre stage, not the participants. She argues that DNA Unknown is just another show in which the participants cannot fully grasp the consequences of what they have set in motion and don’t know how to stop it once they do.

Dutch or Kazakh, that is the question
Trouw’s weekend edition featured a photograph of five Dutch speed skaters who were naturalised as Kazakh citizens in a bid to win qualifications for the Vancouver Winter Olympics. The five marathon skaters – Christijn Groeneveld, Jorrit Bergsma, Arjan Stroetinga, Robert Bovenhuis and Rob Hadders – mistakenly believed they would be allowed to keep their Dutch nationality as well. Under Dutch law, any citizen who voluntarily takes on a different nationality loses his Dutch citizenship.

The immigration authorities have collected documents from the Dutch skating union showing they are staying in the Netherlands illegally. The documents were sent to the union by the Kazakh authorities. If proven legitimate, the five skaters will have to apply for a temporary residence permit or else leave the country.