At least we have learned some new vocabulary and abbreviations: 3G, aerosols, AHA rule, booster vaccination, COVID, false negative, FFP2, hospitalisation rate, incidence, mRNA vaccine, R value, SARS, Stiko, excess mortality, vaccine – we have sorted them alphabetically. You can find an explanation of the terms in the list linked at the end of the article.
Coronavirus was the first global pandemic in living memory. The plague pandemic between 1347 and 1351, which went down in human history as the „Black Death“, wiped out around a third of Europe's population. In the 16th century, it was smallpox, and after the First World War, it was Spanish flu that claimed tens of thousands of lives. But these pandemics did not rage in a connected world as we know it today. At that time, it was not yet possible for viruses to spread across continents within hours.
Neither science, healthcare, politics nor the economy were prepared for an event such as COVID-19. Of course, mistakes were made because there was no previous experience of such a pandemic to draw on. In this context, the statement made by the then Health Minister Jens Spahn in the German Parliament on 20 April 2020, who apparently knew more than he revealed on that day, should certainly be seen in this light: „We will have to forgive a lot.“
What needs to be done to learn the necessary lessons from coronavirus?
The experiences gained must be compiled and evaluated so that a kind of pandemic handbook for the future can be created. Today, for example, it is becoming clear that closing nurseries and schools was completely useless. Do elderly people in nursing homes and hospitals really have to die alone and unaccompanied because their relatives are not even allowed to visit them wearing masks? Do masks even work against viruses? If so, which ones? How many people can meet safely under what circumstances? Should aeroplanes from infection hot spots be allowed to fly in unhindered – as was the case from China for weeks? With the risk that potentially infected people could act as super-spreaders? In such a case, should a single institute, especially one owned by the federal government, such as the RKI, have sole authority to interpret the infection situation? And should other scientific opinions be suppressed? Should Lothar Wieler – a veterinarian by profession – appear on our screens every week and proclaim, like a god, what we are still allowed to do and what we are no longer allowed to do?
All these questions and many more need to be answered. In this respect, setting up a panel of experts would seem to be a viable option, whether it is called an inquiry commission or something else.
Further sources:
https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/rki-protokolle-vergiftete-corona-nachlese-19611238.html
