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Comment by atoav | Hacker News Reader

Living in Germany I don't really feel there is a lack of leadership. So far the politicians listened to expert advice which is precisely what I expect from them. And to oir luck the testing infrastructure in Germany is much better than in nearly every other nation (which also means the numbers are closer to reality than e.g. in Italy or the US). On top of that we have paid leave, so people who are showing symptoms can stay at home without worrying about money.

This is a very different story in the US of course — but is it really only a leadership problem? Isn't it more of a systemic issue in the sense that now the weaknesses of e.g. certain centralized testing structures, not having universal healthcare etc come to light.

Trump might be the worst president the US could have at that point in time, because he acts actively destructive on top of a system that hasn't that much ressilience anyways.

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>So far the politicians listened to expert advice which is precisely what I expect from them. And to oir luck the testing infrastructure in Germany is much better than in nearly every other nation (which also means the numbers are closer to reality than e.g. in Italy or the US).

And with all of that Merkel still said that 60% to 70% of the population will end up infected with the virus. It doesn't sound like Germany's going to be much better off than most other European countries.

The point is that they won’t all hit the ICU athe same time. See flattenthecurve.com

Isn't Germany one of the slowest countries to respond to the epidemic? Aren't schools still open in Germany, with thousands of cases and quite a few deaths already?

In my country (Romania), our normally horribly inefficient government has closed schools the moment our 25th confirmed case was announced, it has banned events of more than 100 people, has encouraged people to work from home, and encouraged those who can't to change their work schedule so that people come in at different times to avoid mass transit overcrowding (and enforced this in public institutions). Many large shops have started limiting the number of people allowed in at once, preferring to firm queues outside. Flights to several countries have been canceled. And all of this in addition to screening travelers, putting everyone coming in from Italy/China/France/Germany/Spain in isolation for 14 days, as well as anyone who came into contact with a confirmed case, and of course tracking everyone who came into contact recently with an identified patient.

And all this is before we saw our 100th confirmed case, with 0 deaths so far. How can you say that the German response was efficient?

>And to oir luck the testing infrastructure in Germany is much better than in nearly every other nation (which also means the numbers are closer to reality than e.g. in Italy or the US)

I am baffled as to why you would think this?

I don't know what's actually happening in Germany, but here's one reason one might think that:

You can use the number of deaths to reason about the true infection rate, independent of the testing strategy. (Until something happens that changes the death rate, like the health system getting overwhelmed.)

For example, Germany and France started seeing cases at about the same time and have found about the same number of cases. But France has 10x the deaths. This suggests that Germany has found a larger proportion of their cases, i.e. they've got better test coverage.

> So far the politicians listened to expert advice which is precisely what I expect from them.

This is simply not true. The response of the Merkel administration is one of the slowest and inconsequential in whole Europe. Very probably accompanied by deliberately playing down death cases and infection numbers in general if anectotical information and comparison with the numbers of surrounding countries has any value.

I think they have handled it pretty well. I'm pretty sure they spent some time talking to experts. I've worked in a research project on crisis management before and have a very high opinion of the Robert Koch Institute which was one of the partners (and am generally quite critical of government organizations). Given the political infrastructure (states can make the decisions in many areas), I think the reaction was pretty good so far. One of the major concerns is always avoiding panics. I'm pretty sure they are balancing all official statements against that.

Tbh. the most important thing for me is that you listen to experts and don't overreact.

In retrospect I think three things could have been handled better. Screening for fever at airports and clearer rules for self quarantining of people after traveling. Third point is control of medical and hygienic supply chains.

Otherwise okish response I would say. Also no indication for dow playing. Maybe a bit reluctant with shut downs of Carnevale, clubs and ski vacationing

As a starter (in German):

https://www.tichyseinblick.de/daili-es-sentials/wie-die-coro...

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