Prof. Drosten, where did the virus come from? (German)

republik.ch

6 points·Pyramus··5 comments

Worth reading even through Google translate. Germany's handling of the Corona crisis has really stood apart for its reason and decency. Drosten as one of the main governmental scientific advisers has played a large part in that.

Germany's handling of the Corona crisis was shameful. Science was largely ignored, instead politicians relied on wishful thinking. The second and third wave hit us hard, it could have been avoided by stricter counter measures.

Take a look at the alternatives.

Obviously there are countries in which the crisis was handled even worse (USA, Brazil, India, ...). Still, Germany did an awful job. To quote a physicist (Prof. Michael Meyer-Hermann) who acted as an adviser to the government: "Everybody immediately understands it, but the next day they all say something else." [1]

I was shocked when the government opened up everything when the second wave was almost over despite having a clear indicaton that a third wave was coming (numbers were rising again). The vast majority of scientists urged the politicians to not open up. Still they did it. Tens of thousands of dead people later I hear things like "We all hoped that the spread of the virus would decrease when spring comes and it gets warmer." (Armin Laschet, one of the candidates to become the next chancellor) [2].

I don't even want to talk about corruption in mask deals.

[1]: (in German) https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wa.de/politik/corona-notbre...

[2] (in German) https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.zeit.de/amp/news/2021-03/24...

Mr. Drosten talks about this in the interview. Skip forward to the section on "False Balance" if you like but the rest of the interview is also worth reading.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com