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Demonstration against the lockdown on Wenceslas Square in Prague: the authorities are of little importance
Photo: Michaela Rihova / imago images / CTK Photo
SPIEGEL:
Professor Flegr, Germans are used to having medical professionals explain the pandemic to them.
But you are a parasite scientist and evolutionary expert. Last summer you predicted the severe wave of infections that is currently plaguing your country.
What do parasites have to do with Corona?
Jaroslav Flegr:
Viruses are parasites.
My research area for more than 20 years has been the evolution of microorganisms.
How do viruses change?
What role do environmental influences or the stage of development of an epidemic play?
To person
Icon: enlargePhoto: Jaroslav Flegr
Jaroslav Flegr,
62, teaches parasitology and evolutionary biology at Charles University.
His book "Frozen Evolution" is a bestseller.
His research on toxoplasmosis caused a sensation.
The infectious disease, often without symptoms in humans, can cause psychological problems, according to Flegr.
She is responsible for suicides and traffic accidents.
SPIEGEL:
Three districts in the Czech Republic are cordoned off.
Germany closes the borders because of the high infection rate in your country.
Can you explain why the Czech Republic is being hit so hard by the pandemic?
Flegr:
It's the government's fault.
Last summer, when the number of infections fell after an initial lockdown, she did not dare to admit that further waves were threatening and that protective measures were necessary.
That was unpopular. Senate and regional elections were held in October, which Prime Minister Andrej Babiš had to win.
When they admitted the danger in mid-October, it was too late, the second wave had already arrived.
But now we are already experiencing a third wave.
A respiratory virus like Corona automatically infects more people in winter than in summer.
In winter - as an evolutionary biologist I know that - more virulent mutants also prevail.
It was already foreseeable in the summer that the pandemic would spread so aggressively again.
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