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Pharmacist Markus Schilli: "My hat string broke"
Photo: private
The pharmacist Markus Schilli runs the "Black Forest Pharmacy" in Gengenbach, Baden. The 56-year-old is represented for the Greens in the local council and in the district council. Thomas Seitz also sits on the committee in the Ortenau district.
Seitz is an AfD politician and had to be
treated in the intensive care unit for weeks
in December and January because of the severe course of his corona disease
.
The AfD man made headlines nationwide when he
appeared in the
Bundestag
with a holey mask
.
Even after four weeks in hospital, Seitz still denies that a pandemic exists and considers the protective measures to be inadequate.
In a Facebook post, pharmacist Schilli called on corona deniers like Seitz not to come to his pharmacy to buy FFP2 masks. For that he got a shit storm on the net - and a lot of approval in his pharmacy. He has now deleted the post anyway.
SPIEGEL:
Mr. Schilli, you made quite a stir with your Facebook post.
What was it that got you so enraged that you turned an entire party and your voters against you?
Markus Schilli
: The immediate reason was the statement by AfD member of the Bundestag Thomas Seitz, who comes from the region and was in the intensive care unit of the Lahr hospital for four weeks with Corona.
It was a matter of life and death.
And when he got through everything, he says in the first interview afterwards that he doesn't have to revise his conviction that Corona is not a pandemic.
This audacity, even with regard to the nursing staff, this double standard.
Then my hat string broke.
SPIEGEL:
Mr. Seitz was already noticed in the Bundestag when he went to the lectern wearing a perforated mask.
He then got a real one from Bundestag Vice President Claudia Roth.
Schilli:
And then he called it a 'muzzle'.
People like Seitz do nothing to protect themselves, they play down the pandemic or even deny it.
And they don't even change their minds when they almost die from it.
I am outraged that the general public has to pay for so much stubbornness and ignorance.
"My post should draw attention to a problem"
SPIEGEL:
So you wrote in your Facebook post, which has since been deleted, that Mr. Seitz should pay his hospital bill himself.
Schilli:
I also asked AfD voters not to buy their masks in my pharmacy.
SPIEGEL:
Wait a minute.
You assume AFD voters that you do not want to protect yourself from Corona anyway and at the same time want to prohibit them from buying masks from you that would protect them.
Isn't that a contradiction?
Schilli:
My post should draw attention to a problem, it should shake people awake.
I am of course aware that it is not legally possible to invoice Mr. Seitz for the costs of his treatment.
And of course, as a pharmacist, I am subject to the so-called obligation to contract.
Means: Everyone who comes to me with a recipe has the right to have it redeemed - including an AfD voter.
I would even be really welcome if he had understood what his party stands for.
SPIEGEL:
You are still outraged.
Schilli:
I myself was not available for three months after an accident last year.
It's a miracle I'm doing so well again.
Maybe that's why it makes me so angry how these people play with human lives.
And I know everyday life in the clinics.
"I just wonder how little empathy you have to have to warn about masks in this situation."
SPIEGEL:
Tell us.
Schilli:
The staff is completely
exhausted
there.
The rampant documentation requirements plus Corona - that cannot be overcome.
Imagine how stressful it is to take care of someone for weeks and then they'll die under your fingers.
I just wonder how little empathy one has to have to warn against masks in this situation and to play down this infection.
I sense what's going on in India or Africa, where the documentation is on a different level than in Europe.
And we all know the pictures from Brazil or Northern Italy.
Well, almost all ...
SPIEGEL:
In your post you asked AFD voters to get their masks elsewhere.
Do they even dare to go to your pharmacy?
Schilli:
I don't ask people what to choose before I redeem your prescription.
After my Facebook entry, however, it was already noticeable that the customers here in the pharmacy responded positively in unison, according to the motto: "Finally someone dares to speak to them." However, there was a real shit storm online.
That's why I deleted the post.
SPIEGEL:
What were you accused of?
Schilli:
I was insulted as a Nazi.
Or as a naive old 68er who has no idea about anything.
By the way, almost always by people who don't even dare to write their names.
SPIEGEL:
Do you know Mr Seitz personally when you posted your Facebook post?
His place of residence, Lahr, can be reached by bike from here.
Schilli:
Yes, we both sit in the district council.
I for the Greens, he for the AfD.
And then we have Stefan Räpple in the region.
SPIEGEL:
This is the member of the state parliament from Kehl, who is too radical for his own parliamentary group and should be excluded.
Schilli:
They are bad people, Seitz also belongs to the right wing of the AfD.
They would probably refuse the Biontech vaccine because it was developed by people of Turkish origin ...
SPIEGEL:
You wanted to initiate a debate with your post.
You succeeded.
Even so, you say you regret the post.
Why?
Schilli:
Not because of me, but because of my employees.
They have been working under difficult conditions for months anyway.
A few days ago there was a long-term customer here whose husband died of Corona at the age of 54.
That takes you with it when you stand behind the counter and then suddenly a widow stands in front of you and you don't know how to comfort you.
"Of course my staff was just missing that."
SPIEGEL:
Corona shapes everyday pharmacy work?
Schilli:
The shop is always full, we all have an FFP2 mask on for hours at a time.
Then there is the private situation.
One of them cannot visit the mother in the nursing home, the other has two small children at home who cannot go to daycare.
SPIEGEL:
And then the boss comes up with the idea of messing with the AfD and corona deniers ...
Schilli:
The phone no longer stands still because some people from Düsseldorf and Berlin are calling here and want to explain that there is no Corona.
Of course, my staff was just missing that.
And it's my fault.
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