A secure democratic Net is a fundamental right

First we heard during the first months that there was really no problem in Belgium and that if you weren't travelling and weren't part of a particular risk group that you shouldn't be worried and that even if you did get an infection that it would all go over without much harm.

Than there was some fever during a few weeks in which one message after another was sent out that this was a real pandemie that could destablize our economy (or what is left of it) and public life. Thousands of people would get killed and the public health services would be overwhelmed, we were at the beginning of an public health crisis that concerned all of us.

Now they are saying that it is a normal cold and that even fewer people would get killed by the flu than in previous other flu- seasons because people are better preprared.

I don't know but the crisis communication is still in crisis because by going back and forth like that you lose in the end all of your credibility with the general public who as a result tend to decide to make up their own minds about what to do and will not listen to this ever changing tango of public messages. So if they decide to panick, they will panick and at that moment you are faced (just as during the Dioxine crisis) with the problem that you will have to re-act to the general tendencies and actions of the public and not vice versa.

The reason they give for this is also incredible. The reason for this total reversal into panick communication is to make the government and institutions aware that they have to prepare themselves urgently to take the necessary measures in case it becomes a general crisis. This is a political responsability and should have been treated as such. Communication can not and will not replace this. It are the actions that count, not the things that you say in the media. Speaking to the media will not replace the necessary actions that you should haven taken already a few months ago. Communication will not hide this inaction. The only thing they can hope is that it just flows over and that there is no crisis because to prepare for a crisis they will have to work very hard now or be ill-prepared.