As Belgium begins to lift some of its blocking restrictions, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo emphasizes that vaccination remains the key to getting out of the pandemic.
“It is clear that vaccination remains crucial,” said De Croo on Friday, when he announced his plan to get out of the blockade.
“Actually, there is no real exit plan,” he said, “the real exit plan, which is the vaccination plan.”
From March 8, people can meet up to 10 people outside, but measures of social distance still need to be respected and the face mask must continue to be used.
Prime ministers’ comments on the importance of launching the vaccine came as the Belgian Medical Association – an organ in which all doctors must be registered to practice medicine – has warned that it will adopt a more rigorous approach to doctors questioning effect of vaccines for coronavirus.
Doctors will face “severe measures against the dissemination of information, mainly through social networks, which are not in line with the current state of scientific knowledge,” the order’s vice president, Dr. Michel Deneyer, told CNN on Friday. -market.
Dr. Deneyer warned that “disinformation can have disastrous consequences” and that “there is no doubt that doctors must collaborate in the planned vaccination program”.
The success of Belgium’s vaccination campaign and the achievement of the national vaccination target of 70% of the adult population “depends a lot on the (lasting) confidence of the population and the medical staff,” he said.
“The population has a lot of faith in the family doctor, the pharmacist, the specialists. Their advice is followed, “added Deneyer.
Any doctor found spreading misinformation will face a disciplinary hearing before one of the order’s ten “local provincial councils” and is at risk of up to two months of suspension, he explained.
Deneyer said that “some doctors” had already been suspended, but was unable to confirm the exact numbers, citing in secret.