In an interview, world medical president Montgomery talks about the coronavirus pandemic, curfews in Germany and border closures.
Mr. Montgomery, it already exists in other countries, in Germany the lockdown may soon be imposed. Do you think this is an appropriate measure?
Curfews must remain the ultima ratio of politics if all methods of educating and informing the population have not worked. I see three problems: 1) Your enforcement: Are there any nods from the police for going for a walk? 2) Their duration: What will be so fundamentally different in 30 days that you can do without them? 3) How do you get out of the lockdown? And how long are people going to put up with that?
And what about the border closings?
The virus is already there - it doesn't have to come yet. What do border closures bring? Every EU citizen has the right to enter the EU anyway. And our inner EU borders are full of holes like Swiss cheese. Instead of wasting resources and people guarding the borders, we should put all our efforts into fighting the virus inside.
Frank Ulrich Montgomery on the corona virus: "Unreasonableness of many is frightening"
Coronavirus: Frank Ulrich Montgomery criticizes people's terrifying unreasonableness.
© picture alliance / dpa
Isn't it a problem that a lot of people don't stay at home?
Yes, the irrationality of many people is terrifying. I'm relying on more education and reason among the population. But in an increasingly hedonistic and self-loving society, you have to actively address them. Scientific information, journalistic perfection and political propagation are not enough. Rather, we have to find formats with which we can reach young and old people, cover all levels of education and achieve sustainability. We have so far been unsuccessful: Many people are ignored by our well-meaning and melodious information.
It is often said that only a few people in Germany are tested for the corona virus. From this point of view, how sensible are the measures taken by the federal government?
No country in the world tests as much and as intensively as Germany. We are working on the edge of technical capacity. That is why we have a comparatively good overview of the situation. And the previous measures taken by the federal government are also having an effect and have given us the lowest lethality rate in the EU. We should recognize that.
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One can assume that despite current measures, many people carry the virus and infect others (e.g. in the supermarket) because they know nothing about their infection ...
That's right - and that's why each of us is required to behave accordingly. In addition to a lot of solidarity, we also experience unprecedented nonchalance and disrespect for public information and recommendations. The I rules, the We loses. To date, we have not managed to make it clear to people that the corona crisis is not just about protecting everyone but protecting the weak and society as a whole. Bawling football fans and singing pub boozers are not only unsavory, they are also extremely unsound. And that is why curfews may become inevitable in the end ...
Frank Ulrich Montgomery on the corona virus: "New virus type"
Former SPD politician and doctor Wolfgang Wodarg claims, with great care, that there have always been corona viruses and that they are no worse than ordinary flu viruses. What do you say to him?
Corona viruses have indeed always existed, but it should not have escaped colleague Wodarg that we are dealing with a new type of virus against which we have no defense in our immunological memory. And it is against the medical ethos to just let people die because it has been there before. In this respect, I am horrified by the utilitarian, non-medical comments made by colleague Wodarg.
What are the most sensible measures?
Three measures are particularly important: 1) distance, 2) distance and 3) distance. We have to voluntarily make contacts that are susceptible to infection. We ourselves have a great deal of control over how the course of the viral disease develops. In addition, we have to maintain and expand capacities for the sick. We have to inform and avoid panic - there is no reason for that if we all behave sensibly.
By Katja Thorwarth
More and more coronavirus infections are reported all over the world - also in Germany. But what are the symptoms of the lung disease? The Robert Koch Institute warns of "up to ten million infected people" in Germany in the corona crisis. Meanwhile, Bavaria imposes a curfew. The number of infected people is increasing worldwide - with political consequences: Turkey is closing its borders to Greece and Bulgaria because of the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus.
