Corona virus: Paramedic from Hesse expresses concerns about the supply situation in Germany - a fact about the corona virus worries him particularly.
- Coronavirus : We are well prepared when we have to take care of individual infected people - says medic Philipp Stehling from Hesse.
- But the ambulance service in Germany is only designed for a certain number of people - conditions like in China cannot be mastered.
- He is particularly concerned about a fact about the corona virus .
Update, February 3, 8:35 p.m .: Federal Minister of Health Jens Span (CDU) exchanged views with the health ministers of the USA , France , Great Britain , Italy , Japan and Canada on Monday (3.2.) To discuss a uniform strategy against the spread of the coronavirus to speak. As Spahn explained, "an adequate response to the virus can only be coordinated internationally and European". The exchange of the G7 countries is important and helpful for mutual understanding ". On Tuesday (February 4th) Spahn wants to meet with the ministers from Great Britain and France to discuss how to proceed at European level .
Corona virus in Germany: paramedics sound the alarm - "Not prepared for a disaster"
Berlin - Philipp Stehling reported himself to bild.de to share his concerns: The paramedic from Hesse does not see Germany's emergency services as adequately prepared for a pandemic. If the virus spreads strongly in Germany as well, people would have to accept significant cuts.
If conditions such as those in China, where experts recently had to correct a positive prognosis for the spread of the virus, have to be adjusted in Germany to a different care by the emergency services: "Then the individual care is no longer the same as if you now 112 call. If we have seven, eight or ten cases in Germany that have the symptoms, we can deal with them. If it gets more, it is a problem, ”he said in a video interview with bild.de (behind the pay barrier). The reason for this is that the paramedics are only focused on a certain number of cases per day. Virologist Christian Drosten recently said that hospitals should equip themselves with additional isolation stations *.
Corona virus in Germany: paramedic's concern applies to a special fact
The paramedic is particularly concerned about the 14-day incubation period of the coronavirus * - this means that those who have been infected can be completely without symptoms for two weeks before the disease breaks out. In addition, there is no way of knowing exactly what the virus is like and how to combat it effectively.
Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn (CDU) made a similar statement on Monday in the ARD morning magazine . "As long as you don't finally know anything about such a virus, the greatest possible caution is always required," he said, referring to pictures of the hospital staff who had picked up and continued to take care of the Chinese returners from the airport in safety suits. Otherwise, he advises against scaremongering. Germany is ready, the CDU politician announced.
Bernd Salzberger, President of the German Society for Infectious Diseases, sees the strict security measures in China and worldwide as one advantage above all: it is about saving time before the corona virus spreads further. "The slower it goes, the more we know about countermeasures such as antiviral drugs - which are also used in China - and may also create a vaccine, " he says. While a rapid test for the diagnosis of coronavirus has already been developed by research in Germany *, further distribution channels are being sought worldwide.
Corona virus in Germany: Fear also arises from measures taken by the Chinese government
Paradoxically, it is perhaps precisely these strict measures against the spread of the virus that spread fear worldwide: The Göttingen-based fear researcher Professor Borwin Bandelow tells dpa that the pictures from the sealed-off city of Wuhan would affect the psyche of people - because the assumption is automatically that something like this does not happen without reason. But: " Fear is not a good thing in statistics," he says - indicating that fear is not always justified.
WHO warns of massive false reports about the corona virus https://t.co/R9zUi0IbT3 #Facebook #Google
- heise online (@heiseonline) February 3, 2020Sonia Lippke, health psychologist at Jacobs University Bremen, also classifies the measures in China from other points of view: There seems to be fear among Chinese authorities that they may be considered incompetent in their own population - and their government abroad.
This leads to measures that "would not be common in Germany," said the health psychologist. In addition to the scientific uncertainty about the nature of the virus, there is an emotional component that should not be underestimated.
Read also: The cruise ship "Aida Perla" was not allowed to call a port on Saturday for safety reasons. Many passengers on board had flu-like symptoms.
* Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.
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List of rubric lists: © dpa / Frank Rumpenhorst
