I just saw this article and thought the headline was funny because it was SO typically Dutch: “Dutch advice on Mexican flu: ‘Just sit it out’ “.
Basically, the Dutch public health authority has stopped counting new cases of the Mexican flu… and doctors are treating it just as they would treat the common winter flu.
Which I guess is fine - I assume the doctors know what they’re doing… and they say it’s no more dangerous than the common flu. So ok, whatever. The part that I thought was funny was the idea of sitting out the flu… because, in my personal experience with the Dutch health system, means to literally sit it out. Possibly with a paracetamol (a mild pain-killer). Which might help a little with any fever, aches, or pains… but if you have any other symptoms, forget about it. For those plagued with sinus problems, too bad - decongestants basically don’t exist here, certainly not over the counter. And if you have a cough or a sore throat, you can suck on a cough drop, but, again, at least over the counter, there are no other options (supressants or expectorants or whatever).
Strange, really, since Holland is so well known as the home of over-the-counter marijuana. Or wait, maybe that’s what the Dutch take when they have the flu?? I don’t know.
Anyways, yes, I’m talking about over the counter things here, because in Holland, unless you’re basically dying, you don’t go to the doctor. A little illustrative anecdote: the doctor of a friend of mine complained about foreigners filling up all the waiting rooms and using all the medical resources… because they go to the doctor when they’re sick, instead of staying at home until it’s really necessary. Riiight.
I don’t know. I mean, I get the whole Calvinist “suffering is good” concept (though I can’t say I subscribe wholeheartedly), and, to be honest, I probably wouldn’t go to the doctor for a common flu myself (or even for the Mexican flu I guess!). (And maybe taking a sick day instead of going to the doctor works here in Holland because when you’re feeling a little under the weather (even emotionally), it’s considered totally ok to call in sick - which seems to go against the Calvinist thing but I guess the hippies had a pretty big impact on this quasi-socialist society).
BUT - call me a drug-crazed, North-American wimp - when I do have the flu, and if I am going to take a sick day, I want to be home… but I don’t want to be alone. I want to curl up under the covers… along with a battery of easily available, symptom-relieving, sleep-inducing drugs (which I do, I just don’t buy them in Holland). And that’s something the Dutch just don’t get.
Oh, and here’s an article announcing that the Mexican flu is going to cost the Netherlands 700-million euros.
Yikes.
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