Virologist Stephen van Gucht prefers not to see the advisory committee give the green light on Friday to reopen hairdressers. And Canvas “To the point” warned about this.
Belgium has performed well in recent months: we are the only country in Europe that has kept its numbers relatively stable. But Van Gucht fears that this will change if the Belgian success formula is tampered with, for example by reopening the hairdressers. “The moment you start to adjust our formula, we don’t know what will happen. Frankly, we are afraid of that.”
Although he acknowledges that other factors also play a role. “We would prefer not to see it, but this is a political debate in which the other arguments matter.”
According to Van Gucht, there is a good reason hairdressers are shutting down. “The basic principle is that we want as little close contact as possible between people. Any close contact is the potential for contamination. But if you allow for communication professions again, the number of contacts will increase again,” Van Gucht warns. It is estimated that hairdressers have around 1 million contacts per week. It seems that “if you open the hairdressers again, you can’t help but make an impact”.
