Anyone who compares the Corona virus with influenza has so far been regarded by the government as a dangerous trivialiser of the pandemic!
But on Wednesday, the Corona flu comparison was made by Lothar Wieler (60), President of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI)!
Corona and the flu “have a lot in common”, Wieler said at the Federal Press Conference. BOTH respiratory infections would spread “wherever people come together”. And BOTH are “a risk for older people and also for chronically ill people”.
Wieler intended to sound the alarm again with the comparison. The scary warning: “If there are many Covid19 and many flu sufferers at the same time, then the hospitals will be massively burdened.” This is how Wieler justified the necessity of continuing the measures.
But is the combination of Corona and flu really causing Germany’s hospitals to collapse?
Health Minister Jens Spahn (41, Christian Democratic Union, CDU) expressed himself in a much more differentiated way than Wieler on several points. Scaremongering? No such thing with Spahn!
Even “before Corona”, the health system had reached its limits, he said. There had been “mild waves of influenza and very severe waves of influenza with a very heavy burden on intensive care units”.
Spahn also showed a lot of understanding – unlike Wieler – for the criticism of the mandatory mask requirement for schoolchildren. “In the evening in a restaurant, all adults sit together for hours without a mask, and in school the children are constantly wearing them.” This should be discussed.
It is the toughest – and most significant – rebuttal of German Corona politics to date!