The selection of scientists who give advice to the federal government in the Corona crisis causes displeasure: Are critical voices from Angela Merkel and Co. not listened to?
The
federal government's corona course
causes incomprehension among parts of the population.
Before Angela Merkel and the country leaders make
decisions,
expert opinions are obtained.
However, there are increasing voices that the
selection
of advisory
scientists
is too one-sided.
Munich / Berlin - There was no shortage of scientific reputation on Monday evening.
The Berlin virologist
Christian Drosten
and
Lothar Wieler
, head of the Robert Koch Institute, are
already regulars
in the
Chancellery
, and their expertise is highly regarded.
The other interlocutors were also well-known.
The virologist Melanie Brinkmann has been involved more often when
corona consultations
were prepared
by the federal and state governments
.
Molecular biologist
Rolf Apweiler
is in international demand and most recently also advised French President Macron.
Really surprising was no name on the guest list.
Maybe that's a problem.
Corona crisis in Germany: one-sided composition of the scientific committee?
There are reasons for the Chancellor and the Prime Ministers to
seek scientific advice
before making decisions that cut deeply into the everyday lives of citizens.
Virologists and physicists, psychologists and mobility researchers.
The stakes are high and the subject is complex.
The fact that things started to ferment in political operations on Monday evening was not due to a lack of competence, but to the composition of the committee.
Experts who are not on the government line were almost completely absent.
Corona policy of the federal government: "Other perspectives at Merkel & Co. undesirable"
So it can be heard that the SPD-governed federal states had campaigned for the invitation of the
epidemiologist Klaus Stöhr
, who previously worked for the World Health Organization and considers the desired reduction in the
seven-day incidence
to 50 to be unrealistic.
He advocates more personal responsibility and more differentiated measures,
he wants to keep
kindergartens
open, and
elementary schools
as well
,
if possible.
He is thus in
opposition to the government on
many points
.
His expertise was not in demand on Monday.
"
Angela Merkel
& Co. apparently does not want
other points of view,
" complained Martin Hagen, the head of the Bavarian FDP parliamentary group.
There were also voices among the Prime Ministers that a
one-sided selection of scientists
was attempting to support one's own standpoints instead of depicting the debate in all its diversity and only then justifying new measures.
Long before the meeting, it had become apparent that the Federal Government was primarily concerned with further tightening.
Trouble is inevitable.
The
advisory committee of
the NRW Prime Minister and future CDU boss
Armin Laschet
reacted
negatively to the proposal of tougher measures.
Some SPD country leaders were also irritated that in the Berlin round not only the incidence 50 was named as the target, but a much more drastic approach was being debated.
Corona summit: debate about zero-covid campaign and shutting down the economy
The so-called zero covid strategy is said to have been pursued urgently.
It says that
in the economy,
too
, the
restrictions
will be expanded so radically that the incidence will be reduced to zero.
This presupposes that areas that have not yet been affected by Corona measures also have to make their contribution.
The economy would come to a standstill in this way.
The virologist Brinkmann is an advocate of the idea, against all odds.
And they are enormous.
The economist Christoph Lütge, member of the Bavarian Ethics Council, calls the
Zero Covid campaign
“an irresponsible, completely one-sided initiative that ignores all collateral damage.
Those who advocate this are acting massively unethically. "