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Care in an intensive care unit
Photo: Bernd Wüstneck / dpa
My father died a year ago due to the corona pandemic, although he was never infected with Sars-CoV-2 himself.
He was already seriously ill when he came to the clinic, and due to the preparations for the then first "wave" he did not get the necessary medical attention that might have saved him in other times.
In addition, he was recently very lonely due to contact restrictions, which was certainly not conducive to his courage to face this serious illness.
At the time, I asked whether this could be offset against each other: the protection against the infectious disease and the undesirable side effects that occur due to the protective measures. The mental illness and suicides due to contact restrictions. The medical emergencies that are overlooked in the hustle and bustle or not even taken care of because people no longer dare to go to medical practices and rescue centers for fear of infection. The consequences for children and adolescents who suffered from precarious circumstances before the pandemic.
In the meantime, there seems to be broad consensus that radical infection protection, often as a hard lockdown, is the best solution in every respect, because it both reduces the number of infections and shortens the time in which people have to suffer from the massive restrictions.
As if one were to say: If you take the drug in high doses and consistently, then you will temporarily have stronger side effects - but then you will get rid of both the disease and the drug and with it side effects more quickly.
Allegations and horror scenarios
However, it is unclear why the measures to cope with the crisis will continue to be implemented so inconsistently when so many politicians and experts are in agreement. Why does nobody care to consistently implement everything that has already been recognized as necessary and helpful? At the political level, in the authorities, in the offices? And at home in your private life, where most infections are currently expected to occur in Germany?
Perhaps, in part, it is due to the increasingly relentless debate about what exactly to do and who is to blame when things don't go right. On the constant roar of the media with his accusations, the fear and horror scenarios. Because all of this leads to people reacting sensibly in the short term. For example, out of concern for yourself and others, stick to the contact restrictions more often. In the long term, however, it leads to the opposite: paralysis through excessive fear or dulling. Especially in the last few meters, when you need more motivation to avoid unnecessary death through vaccinations until "herd immunity" occurs.
My father, who was a virologist himself, would certainly watch the many talk shows with politicians and experts late into the night. And in his grumpy way of talking about the fact that his colleagues sometimes overshoot the mark. That they would rather utter provocative theses than be very precise with numbers and sources. And that they fail to recognize that good doctors and conscientious scientists distinguish themselves precisely in that they do not say something about everything - but rather state the limits of their expertise and clearly separate them from their private opinions and passions.
The success of the mRNA vaccines, on the other hand, would certainly have fascinated and pleased him.
For the many people, of course, who will not only be saved from Covid-19 by this ingenious invention, but also from many other diseases in the future.
Because actually Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci are working on vaccines against cancer.
Now they have not only proven that their concept of mRNA vaccines works in principle.
They also made the money they needed from the corona vaccine to help them achieve their original goals faster.
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My father would certainly have been happy for Şahin and Türeci personally. He held them in high esteem, whom he described as very warm and hospitable. For their scientific brilliance, which they never let themselves be seduced into losing their down-to-earth attitude. But especially for the fact that their research is not about fame or fortune, but about the fate of individual people who suffer from an illness - and whom they want to help with their work.
Perhaps in the last few meters of this exhausting time you should remind yourself more and more precisely: that it's not just about numbers, and certainly not about who predicted something or who was right. But about the fate and dignity of many individual people, for whose lives the pandemic has direct and indirect serious consequences. Consequences that no statistics can do justice to.