The Snitch Line of the Minister of Health

Dear friends and followers,

Frank Vandenbroucke, Belgian Minister of Health, is about to launch a line where people can report doctors who write too many sick notes. Moreover, employers will have to pay for their sick employees for a longer period, and employees could lose their entire benefit if they do not ‘cooperate’ well enough in this whole process (see article in the comments section).

The number of long-term sick people is undoubtedly a problem. In some cases, being declared long-term sick is an easy way to shift the burden of life off your own shoulders and onto someone else. And yes, there are doctors who reach for the pen too easily – I believe that too. But this is also true: more and more people are genuinely physically or mentally exhausted. Fortunately, there are doctors who are human and acknowledge this.

A correct diagnosis must be made of the individual, and it must be ensured as much as possible that only those who truly need help are supported by society. But in this current era, we don’t just need correct diagnoses of individuals; we especially need a correct diagnosis of our society and political system.

The Belgian Minister of Health should actually first and foremost take a long, hard look at his own actions. He was one of the main advocates of Belgium’s COVID policy. The rise in long-term sickness is largely a result of the type of society this minister champions – a society where QR codes distinguish between first- and second-class citizens, where the state believes it knows better what kind of medicine is good for people than the people themselves, where the Minister of Health prefers a sickening pharmaceutical and food industry over the health of the people, a society where ministers mercilessly drive entrepreneurs and employers into bankruptcy, a society that has become so bureaucratic that most people find their bureaucratic jobs – rightfully – completely meaningless, a society where the citizen only works to keep the state system running, a society where solidarity between doctor and patient is forbidden but solidarity with the state is compulsory… a society where politicians have structurally integrated a snitch mentality into the state system.

Such a dehumanized society does indeed cause more and more people to become physically and mentally exhausted. Pathological state systems do not respond to this by questioning themselves; they punish the illnesses they themselves cause in the population, even if it means that eventually no healthy citizens will be left. It’s all textbook totalitarian rule.

That a ‘socialist’ minister, without any form of self-criticism or reflection, threatens to take people’s benefits away – we must speak out against this. This same minister spent hundreds of billions on a COVID policy that, from any reasonable analysis, must be considered meaningless and extremely destructive; a policy that ruined both the physical and mental health of the population. To give just one example from my own field: the number of depressions and other psychiatric problems increased by at least a quarter. It doesn't matter which health parameter you consider; the COVID crisis caused a tragedy.

How much did the COVID policy, which this Minister of Health was a major supporter of, actually cost? Worldwide, about 18 trillion (!!) dollars were directly pumped into the measures. But that astronomical amount is small change compared to the damage it caused.

To give just one reference point: when farmers occupied a few roundabouts in Belgium last year, Belgian newspapers reported that this would cause 100 million euros of damage to the economy (see comments for article). Can anyone use the same formula to calculate how much damage the months-long lockdowns caused? And I certainly don’t mean primarily in economic terms. I mostly mean in terms of healthy and happy years of life. In a way, these are after-the-fact reflections, but I would still love to see the cost-benefit analysis. And don’t forget to factor in that the average age of death for COVID patients was about the same as the average life expectancy. That alone is enough to give an idea of what the outcome of the analysis will likely be.

To this day, I have heard no apology or even a sign of remorse from the minister involved. On the contrary, in Europe, it seems that the main lesson learned from the COVID crisis is that they will repeat the same mistakes with the next ‘pandemic.’ It becomes even more troubling when the current generation of politicians, at the same time, ruthlessly cuts the benefits of chronically ill people but manages to make big plans to invest hundreds of billions in going to war in Ukraine. They are not hindered by any historical awareness or understanding of the geopolitical situation that led to the war. Otherwise, they would know immediately that with some diplomacy, they have a good chance of saving not only hundreds of billions but maybe the entire future of humanity.

Returning to the Minister of Health: what makes it even worse is that this ‘socialist’ minister belongs to a political culture that has labeled any rightful criticism of social security abuse as ‘inhuman’ for decades. I fear this: the same political trend will, in the near future, more and more deny help to those who truly need it.

We can extend this story to the theme of migration: it is likely that the same political culture, which has hypocritically and politically demonized any legitimate addressing of migration issues as ‘racism,’ will soon emerge as the true promoters of pure racism. All that will be needed for this to happen is that Muslims do not conform sufficiently to their technocratic and radically atheistic ‘woke’ policies.

How far are we from a policy that regulates migration in a human and realistic way, one that is sensitive and open-minded towards people from different cultures, but also respects itself and its own culture enough to set clear boundaries?

Finally, back to long-term sick leave. I do not place all the blame on the Minister of Health and ‘the state.’ The individual person also carries a serious responsibility. Most of us are sick from our ‘bullshit jobs.’ It’s hard to recharge physically and mentally for work when you don’t even know if you’re doing anything useful at your job. That’s true. But we all bear responsibility in this regard as well.

If I may offer good advice to everyone – and to myself: we must do everything in our power to find work that gives meaning to our lives; work with which we can feel that we’re giving something to ourselves, to others, and to society. Work that keeps us as far away as possible from the sickening bureaucracy and the over-digitalized world. There is no better remedy for long-term illness than this kind of work.

And regarding the minister, I would say: I think we should put him on long-term sick leave. It will cost us less than if he ‘works.’

Mattias.