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Germany – a country of wishful thinkers

February 15th, 2022

Started in February 2020, the SAJO blog is providing a thread through the pandemic with up-to-date information and suggestions around SARS-CoV-2.

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Dear readers,

Once upon a time Germany was called a nation of science. These times are long gone.

For the first time in weeks, new infection numbers as reported by the Robert-Koch-Institute are declining. However, data given to the Johns Hopkins University are seemingly levelling off with a slow increase. https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

In the week before last, we counted 1.301 million (as of February 6, 2022) new infections (per week!) and last week there were 1.307 new registered infections. This is an increase of about 60,000 compared to the previous week. The dark figure will be higher. Germany is in 4th place in the “world ranking” of new infections, trailing the US, France, and India. In Germany, there were 4381 deaths by COVID-19 in a single month.

Currently, it is unclear if this stagnation in confirmed infections is not simply caused by a limit in the registration system.

Well, our Minister of Health is trying to make a prognosis. We have high regards for Prof. Lauterbach as a medical doctor, but in this case, he seems to leave the path of reputable science. This needs a correction! This is meant as an appeal!

Models are just as reliable as the data they are being fed with. Biology cannot be fully modelled – it keeps surprising all biologists again and again.

Our politicians are excelling themselves with opening strategies and ways to lift measures and all the things involved. All under the disguise of “careful and moderate” and other wording that may embellish bad decisions. This does not change the fact that wrong decisions will have consequences.

This is the fact: Case numbers are way too high.

Should these indeed level off at the moment, any lifting of measures, unreason, and other nonsense will drive numbers up again. At first, case counts need to go down to an acceptable level. Otherwise, this will result in suffering of the people, many infections, more avoidable deaths, many harmed children. In other words, if you let the pandemic off the leash, you will cause unnecessary suffering.

In the long run, numerous infections will result in more mutations!

From friends we hear that mostly in metropolitan areas such as Berlin or Munich, those being reasonable are being hassled by the reckless and deniers. It is worrying, if people do not have the chance to protect themselves, and if unreason and aggression take hold. This, we are calling a mob. It is hint at state and city government failure.

Dear readers, the decisions our politicians are preparing, are reckless and UNRESPONSIBLE at this moment.

From the new government we had expected a more progressive thinking, and most of all a wise leadership and prudent action. However, one thing is becoming clear, and we had talked about this on November 17, 2020, already: With one exception, all state governors are still in office, and they keep doing as they please. Then, the chancellor stemmed herself against resistance and obstinacy of the governors towards the pandemic. https://www.sajo-innovation.de/blog/the-chancellor-and-the-16-non-cooperative-ones/

November 17, 2020, SAJO blog post, Cartoon Oliver Hoogvliet

We are living in a democratic society, but what we are observing now is endangering the democracy. Our politicians were elected to serve and protect the society. They were not elected to follow their own agenda. Every citizen has a right to health and integrity. This has been fixed in the German constitution, the “Grundgesetz”. To all those of you not knowing about it: Please go ahead and read it. You should understand the content if you are in a public office. You should know the constitution and the rules of democracy, and act accordingly.

The 16 governors of the German states in the populism pressure cooker doing their own things, with the result of new SARS-CoV-2 mutants. Unfortunately, they still don’t understand the context of their deeds, their state leadership, with direct consequences on the pandemic. Maybe, one person of the “expert committee” of Prof. Lauterbach may familiarize the politicians with the matter. More than two years into the pandemic we would wish for a basic understanding of complex correlations, and some enlightenment. Cartoon: Oliver Hoogvliet

It is a crying shame. Most of all, it keeps repeating itself with every pandemic, irrespective of the century. It is a total political and societal disaster. The worst thing: This is going to continue. There is no learning from previous mistakes, no change of course, but rather a wrapping around wrong decisions in a “feel-good” wording, prepared to deceit. Thus, wrong decisions are being disguised.

Please, stay alert and keep protecting yourself. There is no indication for an unprotected and laissez-faire behavior now. Facts and numbers by reputable scientific sources are indicating this.

Yours, Sabine

Dr. Sabine Breun and Dr. Joerg Baumann, both PhDs, virologists, immunologists and founders of SAJO. Both are specialized in infectious diseases. Since the 90s, Dr. Baumann has been working on zoonoses and how pathogens overcome the species barrier. Since 2000, Dr. Breun works on the interaction of viruses with the immune system. Both work as team. SAJO enables new antivirals – antivirals of the next generation to fight pandemics.

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SAJO is consulting all around infectious diseases. We are applying our know-how, that we have acquired in more than 20 years. We do what we can to fight this pandemic.

This is post No. 216. To our delight our blog is receiving a lot of acceptance, we love to share our know-how and expertise. Please feel free to share the link – it is an informative tool to fight this pandemic. We would appreciate, if our German colleagues in medicine and politics cited us when retrieving information from here.

(Note: We are no members of political parties, religious congregations, or societies. We value independence, sovereignty, and freedom. With our blog we are providing purely scientific advice, without conflict of interest, altruistic. We are not being paid for it.)

We thank Oliver Hoogvliet for his wonderful cartoons. It is always a pleasure! ollihoo (https://hoogvliet.de).

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