Pandemic years 2020/21 - Part 1

(DE) "Come over here; he's talking now!" With these words, the coordinator of the refugees' shared accommodation calls me from the training room into her office. Strangely enough, not a single one of my German language students has turned up for the course that morning, not even the reliable Dschamila from Afghanistan, who, as a 60-year-old illiterate woman, is making every effort to learn to speak and write in a completely foreign language.

16 March 2020 in Bavaria

Three of us sit tensely around the radio, waiting for the voice of the Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder, who wants to inform us about the situation in Bavaria or Germany and announce measures.

The radio we are staring at is not a " Volksempfänger" (a German equivalent of the wireless home service in Britain), and we are not living in the 1940s. But as we sit there, listening spellbound to the determined words of a politician, the contours of time become blurred. I feel transported back to a time I never experienced, a time I only know from films and stories. At the time of Hitler's speeches, people gathered around their "Volksempfänger" to hear about the start and progress of the war and to listen to the slogans and propaganda.

On that memorable 16 March 2020 at 11 a.m. in Germany, more precisely in Bavaria, it is not about war and propaganda, but about the approach of a pandemic of unimagined proportions. The coronavirus Covid-19 is, in the eyes of politicians, out of control as of spring 2020. In contrast to the United Kingdom, binding legal measures are being taken.

The Bavarian Minister-President declares a state of emergency for Bavaria. Contact or curfew restrictions, ban on events, closure of restaurants and shops, except for those serving the essentials of life, closure of schools and end of attendance classes and such measures more.

We are silent and shocked and totally inexperienced in dealing with such news. None of us has an opinion on what we have heard. No one suspects what might come next and what actually came.

Infection situation in Germany:

27 January 2020 - first cases of infection at "Webasto" in Stockdorf near Munich. 16 March 2020 - 1,477 new cases / 7-day average 871 Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder declares a state of emergency: Exit restrictions, closures, contact bans... Shutdown.

18 March 2020 - 3,070 new cases / 7-day average 1488

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's televised speech: " This is serious. Not since German unity, no, not since the Second World War, has there been a challenge to our country in which our joint action in solidarity is so crucial. This is a historic task - and we can only achieve it together."

02 April 2020 - 6,922 new cases / 7-day average 5,837 (peak).

13 June 2020 - 41 new cases / 7-day average 260 (low point).

Source: JHU CSSE COVID-19 Data

Secret Corona - China's approach to the virus

During my research at the beginning of the Corona pandemic, I came across a fascinating documentary on ZDFinfo entitled "Geheimsache Corona - Wie China die Pandemie vertuschte" (translated: Secret Corona – How China hushed up the pandemic).

According to this documentary, on 01.12.2019, a 70-year-old man in Wuhan was hospitalised with severe pneumonia of unexplained cause. On 11.12.2019, there had already been 70 to 200 cases with mild conditions. The virus that caused the lung disease had been examined in a laboratory. On 26.12.2019, the treating doctors, the hospital, the State Academy of Medicine and the Centre for Disease Control in Beijing were informed that it was a new coronavirus.

Latest at this point, as any internet search will show, the cover-up by the Chinese authorities began. Case numbers were falsified, doctors warned, journalists censored, hospitals instructed to report cases but not to make anything public, and staff banned from wearing masks. Chinese virologists explained that the virus is not contagious and not transmitted from person to person.

According to the documentation mentioned above, a researcher in Shanghai decoded the gene sequence on 6 January 2020 and confirmed the similarity with SARS. But this knowledge was not shared with the world. It was only on 11.01.2020 that the Chinese scientist decided, against his orders, to share the genome sequence with his colleagues outside China. So work could start on testing, vaccine development and containment measures.

Like all governments, China would have been obliged to report the virus' emergence, the extent of the epidemic and the scientific findings to the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva. The documentation mentioned above reveals that the WHO has had bad experiences with China before in terms of giving information or cover-up. Nevertheless, WHO did not publish its concerns, did not sound the alarm, but merely repeated the information it received from China.

China informed the WHO of cases of pneumonia with unknown causes on 31 December 2019. However, only almost two weeks later, after the Chinese scientist unofficially shared the genome sequence with his colleagues worldwide, the Chinese government felt compelled to officially publish the genome sequence, providing clarity on the potential threat.

By mid-January 2020, the scientists have so much information on their desks that the potential for a pandemic is clear. In China, however, people travel to their families to celebrate the Spring and New Year holidays while Wuhan goes into lockdown.

No one believes in a greater danger

In Germany, the first cases of infection with the Covid-19 coronavirus emerged at the "Webasto" company in Stockdorf, south of Munich, on 27 January 2020. A Chinese employee, who had entered and left the country without any problems, had infected colleagues during a training course. At the time, this worried those affected but not really those in power or even the population in Germany.

Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) explained:

"It was to be expected that the virus would also reach Germany. But the case from Bavaria shows that we are well prepared for it.

The risk to the health of people in Germany from the new respiratory disease from China remains low according to the RKI's assessment."

As a precaution, at least 100 returnees from Wuhan will be isolated for 15 days on 01 February 2020. Jens Spahn sees the risk of being called "overly cautious" for himself and consciously accepts it.

Source: www.bundesgesundheitsministerium.de/coronavirus/chronik-coronavirus

For most Germans, China is far away, so the news of a new virus rampant in Wuhan was not earth-shattering in the true sense of the word. The health ministers from the EU and the G7 countries agreed on closer cooperation to prevent the spread of the virus. However, neither the national governments nor the EU seemed to have ready-made plans to prevent a pandemic in their drawers.

On 12 February 2020, the Robert Koch Institute still estimated the danger for the German population as low.

Source: www.bundesgesundheitsministerium.de/coronavirus/chronik-coronavirus

Four weeks later - a historic challenge

On 11 March 2020, the WHO declared the outbreak of infection to be a pandemic. A few days later, on the 16 and 18 March 2020, both the state and federal governments agreed that the pandemic could only be brought under control with strict measures.

Particularly feared was the overload of hospitals and significant excess mortality, especially among the elderly.

Pictures from northern Italy, which was literally overrun by the pandemic, frightened both politicians and the population in Germany. The hospitals could hardly cope with the intensive care patients, and the dead had to be transported away in army trucks.

Germany/Bavaria, therefore, tried to contain the pandemic with decrees on infection control measures:

-Events and gatherings, including those of all religious communities, are banned.

-A minimum distance of 1.5 m is to be maintained in parks and green spaces.

-Facilities that serve recreational purposes must close.

-Catering establishments may now only provide or deliver food and drink for takeaway. Company canteens can only apply for exceptions under certain conditions.

-Hotels and other accommodation establishments may now only accommodate business travellers.

-Retail shops must close, except for those that provide essential supplies to the population. This includes grocery shops, pharmacies, petrol stations, post offices, pet supplies and dry cleaners.

-People must maintain a minimum distance, and the number of people allowed to meet is also limited.

- There is a ban on entering and visiting hospitals and similar care and nursing facilities.

- Schools will be closed. Care for students in schools is only available in urgent cases.

- One is only allowed to leave the house for urgent reasons.

- One is only allowed to meet with one person outside one's own household and only at a distance.

Links to Ministry of Health / Bavarian Ministry :

https://www.stmgp.bayern.de/coronavirus/

Self-sewn mask

The world knows the usefulness of masks, but their use is not yet planned.

In addition to national measures, each federal state had its own Covid strategy. (TA)