Corona-themed evening on ARD: After the documentary “Hirschhausen and the long shadow of Corona”, the science journalist of the title appeared on “Hart aber Fair” to answer the question “What has the pandemic done to us?” Moderator Louis Klamroth welcomed the Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD), the journalist Heribert Prantl, the medical ethicist Alena Buyx, the epidemiologist Klaus Stöhr, the psychologist Melanie Eckert and Elena Lierck, founder of the association “nichtGenesenKids eV”, her daughter at Long, as further guests Covid is suffering.
Eckart von Hirschhausen shed light on young people who lacked “a lot of resilience factors” due to the pandemic. In the vulnerable phase of adolescence, eating disorders, lack of exercise and internet addiction increased.
He named scientists who had been subjected to public hatred as further victims. An “infodemic” took place parallel to the pandemic. “Really dangerous nonsense” has spread millions of times online via videos. False statements made by him using artificial intelligence were circulating, which he could not get removed.
Heribert Prantl stated that a “postcoronal sadness” and “the after-effects of an inquisitorial climate” can still be felt. “In principle, all fundamental rights had to be thrown aside when it was claimed that certain measures served to protect life,” complained the journalist. Even the current “Chancellor” Scholz declared at the time that there should be “no red lines” when dealing with the infectious disease.
“That doesn’t work in a constitutional state,” complained the “Süddeutsche” journalist looking back. To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Basic Law, he would have liked to have dealt with the pandemic as a gift this spring. He is “angry” that this hasn’t happened yet.
Unprecedented betrayal
“We discussed and weighed things up,” said Karl Lauterbach, contradicting the allegations. “Fundamental rights were always discussed.” Restrictions would have “hurt a lot” for everyone involved. Nevertheless, the coming federal government owes it to the population to deal with the corona pandemic, demanded the SPD politician. He himself campaigned “very intensively” for this, but failed because of the uncompromising FDP.
According to recent Zeit research, he was generally harsh on his former coalition partner. It was an “unprecedented betrayal” that showed that “you shouldn’t govern with a party like that,” he said. “I could live with it if the FDP didn’t manage to get into the Bundestag.”
Lauterbach: “My tone was over it”
Lauterbach, however, looked back sheepishly at the debate on compulsory vaccination and the associated pressure on unvaccinated people. He admitted that his tone in the Bundestag debates at the time was “out there” and “not optimal”. His aim was to “protect the unvaccinated from their own harm”. In principle, the discussion about compulsory vaccination was “dignified and unproblematic”, but in retrospect such compulsion would not have been necessary, the Federal Minister of Health admitted. “It was clearly the right decision at the time to reject compulsory vaccination.”
Lauterbach also criticized himself when it came to dealing with minors. “We were relatively tough on the children,” he admitted, “but we still allowed a lot in the companies.” Production was seen as more important than education. At the same time, he defended the temporary closure of schools. “If we had kept schools open all the time, we would have many more children with Long Covid,” said the SPD politician. Louis Klamroth cited Elena Lierck’s daughter, both of whom he had visited in Dresden, as an example of the long-term consequences of a corona infection. She outlined her child’s medical history up to the diagnosis of Long Covid and ME/CFS.
A million people in this country suffered from Long Covid, 90,000 children from ME/CFS. Lierck said her daughter hasn’t been able to walk for over a year now. Everyone else continues to live their lives, while their child is as if “buried alive”. Nevertheless, there was initially a “tendency towards psychosomatization”. It was assumed that your daughter was imagining the illness, that she was suffering from family circumstances or that she simply didn’t want to go to school.
Do you still expect a recovery? “Hope is actually dwindling every day because I see her condition getting worse with every year.” Lauterbach, on the other hand, encouraged her: “I believe that we will be able to find a cure there.”
“We have to work on and learn for years to come,” demanded Alena Buyx, given the various aspects of the pandemic that were discussed in the program. This is already taking place substantially, as the NRW Study Commission shows.
The medical ethicist repeatedly called for a more positive conclusion. In daycare centers, companies and hospitals, people achieved top performance. The former chairwoman of the Ethics Council emphasized that coping with this was an “incredible social achievement”. “It is really important that we look forward and take a much closer look at what positive things we can gain from this terrible time.”
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