Relax or not? Anne Will debated the open questions of the corona crisis on Sunday. Wolfgang Kubicki outraged some viewers - an expert warned urgently of a missed opportunity.
Berlin - There are still many unanswered questions long weeks after the start of the corona epidemic in Germany . Those that seem to be getting more and more pressing these days: The politicians loosen the protective measures, while the Robert Koch Institute warns of a worsening infection situation. And on the streets - often apparently without regard to pandemic dangers - demonstrate people for whom the restrictions still seem far too hard.
Coronavirus: Anne Will debates easing - physicist warns of a crucial mistake
Anne Will's ARD talk on Sunday (May 10th) revolved around precisely these directional questions. "Germany is loosening up - is the corona risk manageable?" Was the question of the evening. However, the viewers were able to get very different feelings about this question. Depending on who you were listening to.
The physicist Viola Priesemann , working at the Max Planck Institute , opened the round with a warning of what she considered to be an unnecessary mistake. "We are almost done, we only have a few infection spots left and we are going home," she said, referring to the current easing policy.
Priesemann called for the number of new infections to be reduced even further; so far until meaningful contact tracking is possible. At the same time, comprehensive tests are necessary. The question now is whether the goal is to actually control the virus - or whether one wants to live with a "chronic", nationwide variant. Whether you relax or not, that is not the only topic of epidemiology, but it also conceded.
Anne Will (ARD) on the coronavirus: Kubicki is flippant - and is met with outrage online
The politicians represented in the talk wanted to see the situation much more relaxed. In Rhineland-Palatinate, there have been double-digit infections a day for several weeks , said Prime Minister Malu Dreyer (SPD). Under these conditions, tests would be of little use - there are simply no positive results in the medical sense. At the same time, it must be clear that one-off nationwide tests are useless, the SPD politician said. If you go this route, you have to test every "one, three or seven days".
The comments by FDP Vice Wolfgang Kubicki met with violent criticism online . He said he didn't know what to do with the Robert Koch Institute's recently increased “ R number ”. Most recently, this figure fluctuated significantly - its significance also declined with the course of the epidemic. He also sees citizens on the beach as very responsible.
"He doesn't know what to do with the reproduction number and doesn't understand that the numbers are not live," said a viewer on Twitter . "Why is someone so blatantly uninformed able to comment on such topics, dear editor of Anne Will", was his question - and brought in likes by the dozen. The commentator was not alone with this anger. "Not knowing as the basis for a demand for easing," also scoffed Matthias Hauer (CDU) , a member of the Bundestag at the short message service .
He (Kubicki) does not know what to do with the reproduction number and does not understand that the numbers are not "live". Why is someone so EKLATANT UNINFORMIERTES allowed to comment on such topics, dear editor of @AnneWillTalk? #AnneWill ü
- The vonne gas institute (@punkt_stumm) May 10, 2020Anne Will: Ethics Council member sees big problems, expert brakes hope of the easing proponents
Peter Dabrock , a longstanding member of the German Ethics Council , warned of other questionable tendencies. With a view to circulating conspiracy theories, he emphasized that an "Xavier" or "Attila" - apparently meant Xavier Naidoo and TV chef Attila Hildmann, who had recently commented on the virus in sometimes crude ways - were "no longer to be caught". The situation must be made understandable to the rest of the country's citizens. Otherwise Germany would face major problems.
Dabrock also described the plans for a Bundesliga restart as "devastating". The company is now in the "Marathon" Corona fight in the "where it hurts" phase. Wrong signs could now crumble solidarity. At the same time, the impression of "preferential treatment" threatens professional athletes.
However, Priesemann later also dampened hopes of a quick recovery of the economy through the current easing. You couldn't force people to go to restaurants, she noted. "We need trust. And we only have this trust if we can really track the infection chains completely. ”There is now still a chance to take this path.
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