At Markus Lanz, the group spoke again about the corona virus.
Alexander Kekulé defended his point of view: he confirmed the Chinese narrative in certain parts.
Markus Lanz confronted Alexander Kekulé with his own quote.
Alexander Kekulé explained how the corona virus was able to "optimize" itself in northern Italy and how it spread worldwide from there.
And described the mistake Europe made at the beginning.
Hamburg - "The virus that is currently rampant worldwide is not the virus from Wuhan, it is the virus from northern Italy",
Markus Lanz
* began the conversation on his ZDF program on Thursday evening (26th June)
with this quote about the
coronavirus
by Alexander Kekulé
November).
“The virus is actually a variant that only appeared in northern Italy.
That's what we call the G variant, ”the virologist Kekulé who was present explained his thesis.
Viruses change quickly - they mutate.
This is due to their relatively unstable genetic structure.
Markus Lanz (ZDF) - Alexander Kekulé: "The coronavirus has genetically changed"
“The virus has changed genetically and, as we now know with a very high degree of probability, is also more infectious than the original
Wuhan variant
.
And the
virus
that is now being detected worldwide is the one that has spread in northern Italy, ”explained Kekulé.
The actual starting shot of the global corona * pandemic is now in
Italy
- and not in Wuhan.
Italy was particularly hard hit by the pandemic in January, February and March.
Kekulé
explained the origin of this more contagious variant as
follows: “There was an undetected outbreak in northern Italy for several weeks.
During this time a variant has developed.
The virus had enough time to optimize itself so that a more infectious variant emerged, which from there spread around the world. "
In Markus Lanz, Kekulé partially supports the thesis of the Chinese government
Markus Lanz
* then noted that
Kekulé's
statement strongly reminded him of the propaganda of the Chinese state government.
China is currently advocating the thesis that the new cases occurring in China are imports from Europe.
Kekulé then stated that scientific research supported this theory.
However, the virologist clearly distanced himself from Chinese propaganda, which portrays Europe as a scapegoat.
Kekulé
also contradicted
the Chinese position that the
virus
had only spread across the globe through the modification in Europe.
"This cannot be prevented with such a highly infectious pathogen," says Kekulé.
However, he critically stated: “Of course there is a difference whether you are confronted with something like this for the first time in Wuhan, whether you have no test *, have no idea what it is - and have to react.
The prerequisite is more difficult than if you had been warned for a long time in Italy or Europe and simply didn't take these warnings seriously at the beginning.
The
virologist Kekulé
does not see the sole blame for the global spread in Italy or Europe, but the authorities - in view of the findings from
China
- could have used their knowledge advantage better and responded more quickly.
In Germany the “Lockdown Light” was recently extended.
Only during the Christmas holidays should there be easing - but not equally in all federal states.
(lb) * Merkur.de is part of the Ippen-Digital network
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