If you watched the press conference last Monday, you probably noticed that sign interpreter Irma Sluis (49) received just a little more attention during this conference than usual. Irma is regularly praised for her work during the corona crisis, but on Monday evening she came under fire. And that had everything to do with a cough…
During the press conference, in which Prime Minister Rutte explained, among other things, the tightened corona measures, Irma had to cough. She did not hold her elbow, but her fist in front of her mouth. And of course the whole of the Netherlands liked that… After all, she did not adhere to the rules that she herself communicates to the viewers of the conference. Now Irma herself is also responding to what is now called a 'cough-gate':"I am not sick", Irma tells us directly. “I had a sting in the throat and it made me quite nervous.” She indicates that the coughing in her hand was 'unconscious'. “It was also the speed that it went with. Although I didn't do it consciously, otherwise you will be four sentences behind Mark Rutte in terms of speed.”
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Irma thinks that her cough has caused so much:"It can just happen and then that is of course annoying." There is no risk that she has infected the Prime Minister with corona. “Everyone in our family has recently had a cold. I did a corona test and it was negative. I hope everyone will have forgotten it tomorrow," said the sign interpreter.
