On 10 September 2026, Dr Anja Schreijer, Medical Director of the PDPC, was the final witness to be heard by the Dutch Parliamentary Inquiry Committee on COVID-19. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Schreijer was Head of General Infectious Disease Control at GGD Amsterdam, Chair of the National Consultation on Infectious Disease Control (LOI), and a member of the Outbreak Management Team (OMT). The hearing focused on reflecting on the COVID-19 pandemic and looking ahead to future crises.

During her hearing, Schreijer reflected, among other things, on the role of the municipal public health services (GGDs) and contact tracing at the start of the pandemic. “For too long, there has been too little investment in public health. As a result, infectious disease control in the Netherlands had been operating at a low level for some time, and the GGDs were insufficiently prepared.” Although contact tracing could be scaled up quickly, this required many people to be trained in a short period of time.

The regional approach to the pandemic was also discussed. Schreijer described it as complicated and uncomfortable to organise measures at a regional level, as people could easily move to other regions. In her view, regional crisis management did not work at the time and national coordination was needed.

An important part of her reflections concerned the societal impact of pandemic measures. Schreijer emphasised that the social sciences should play an important role in providing advice during a pandemic. At the same time, she argued that robust data are needed on issues such as loneliness, mental health and learning delays, so that the societal consequences of measures can be properly considered alongside epidemiological data. The PDPC, under Schreijer’s leadership, is conducting extensive research in this area to develop this knowledge and expertise.

Finally, Schreijer looked ahead to future crises. Infectious diseases do not stop at national borders, making international cooperation essential. She called, among other things, for better international coordination and agreements on sharing data, knowledge and vaccines, for example by signing the WHO Pandemic Agreement. She also warned that the Netherlands needs to invest sufficiently in pandemic preparedness. According to Schreijer, cuts to the budget are already putting areas such as wastewater surveillance and modelling under pressure. She compared this to building half-height dikes after the 1953 North Sea flood. “After a crisis that caused 50,000 deaths in the Netherlands, I had hoped there would be a fully-fledged ‘Delta Plan’. That did not happen, and that’s a problem, because it means we are not prepared for the next crisis.”

Schreijer’s hearing marked the end of the public hearings of the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee on COVID-19. In total, 51 hearings with 47 witnesses were held over nine weeks. The committee is now working towards its final report, which is expected in early 2027.

The full hearing can be watched on the DebatDirect website.

Read more about Dr Schreijer’s hearing in, among others, NOS, NRC, NU.nl, AD, De Telegraaf and Het Leidsch Dagblad.

Many of the topics in dr. Schreijer’s hearing touched upon research by the PDPC. For example, read more about the UNITY and PRESENT research projects, both funded by ZonMw.