Info: Source: https://www.tageblatt.lu/headlines/sars-cov-2-das-kind-im-brunnen-und-wie-es-so-weit-kommen-konnte/?fbclid=IwAR0kIEwMNavnRx7EHqQFt5JY77eI6IDMg1lu3NIKkionQaieXedNdN_19vw March 2020. State of emergency. Almost every day the government now steps in front of the cameras and microphones to keep the population informed about the dramatic situation regarding the coronavirus. And to proclaim, like a prayer wheel, how painful but important it is for us all to comply with the prescribed measures. Highest activity - now, all of a sudden. For up to three months the country is expected to go into emergency mode. The facts are clear: what began at the beginning of winter in a market in Wuhan, China, has developed into a genuine pandemic. For a long time, politics, both here and in neighbouring countries, sounded quite different: the "possible" further spread of the novel corona virus must be countered "with calm and deliberation". Tenor: "We have this under control, we are well prepared for emergencies". By mid-February at the latest, every halfway informed and capable person could actually imagine what was still to come. And when the whole thing began to boil alarmingly in northern Italy, they started to think about their own protection strategy for day X. Without any political guidance. Stay informed / In these unprecedented times, the Tageblatt team is working hard to keep you fully and reliably informed about the coronavirus crisis. The latest news and recommendations are freely available. Reports and background reports, however, are reserved for subscribers. However, we see our information mission as more than just a business. The Tageblatt therefore offers its digital subscriptions at reduced prices, starting at one euro per month. You can find further information in our webshop. The bottom line is that both humans (not every individual, but the herd animal, the individual stupid, so to speak) and the political caste have been unaware of the consequences - both health wise and economically - for far too long. With all understanding for the nervous efforts that Beg, Macron and many others are now making, with all understanding that now, when the child has fallen into the well, we all have to spoon out the soup in solidarity: It was overslept! Italy, China and the "Partita zero" Let's start from the beginning again: In the north of Italy, tens of thousands of Chinese work for dumping wages in shamefully hidden textile studios, so-called sweatshops, which also supply expensive brands - keyword "Made in Italy". Sounds better than "Made in China". Officially there are 321,000 Chinese living in Italy today, but unofficially there are probably considerably more. The fact that some of them travel home at the turn of the year and return at some point could have been anticipated in Europe's boots, given the health situation in the Middle Kingdom. This did not happen at all - instead, a sham search for the "patient zero" in northern Italy was staged. What followed can certainly be compared with the Titanic disaster of 1912: With a lot of hullabaloo into disaster! A fatal piece of the puzzle was, many epidemiologists agree, the Champions League game Atalanta Bergamo against FC Valencia on 19 February in Milan: after this "match zero" with 44,000 spectators, the Corona Falls in Northern Italy exploded within 14 days. In addition, viruses were exported to Spain when the air was almost "clean" there. In many countries the case is only registered when hotel guests on Tenerife (and also returnees with us) have to go into protective quarantine after February 20. In the German Rhineland, carnival is celebrated in the same week as if nothing was wrong (what do you care about Italy and the first few corona cases at a Bavarian company ...), the number of Covid-19 sufferers in the Heinsberg district near Aachen is still going through the roof. In Berlin, until then almost Corona-free, the Party Bear is tap-dancing. And also in the Bundesliga: the games continue to be played in front of packed spectators on the last weekend of February; the only topic of conversation is the hostility against patron Dietmar Hopp. Corona? No way. Today: national emergency in Germany. Titanic, the next - Mulhouse, Haut-Rhin, 17-21 February: For just under a week, followers of the Free Church "Porte ouverte" pray, love and embrace each other, and with divine blessing, so to speak, the next big epidemic is forming. Today: Corona-GAU in Alsace, national emergency in France. Celebrate until the doctor comes And the party goes on - even here in the small country nobody pulls the emergency brake after the first two Covid 19 cases were confirmed in the first days of March. In Düdelingen, the 7th March is the time for the "Celtic" festival - international bands, like the steadfast Gauls, are allowed to play in close contact with the audience against the increasing virus-warners and knockers. Assembly bans? No way! Today: national emergency in Luxembourg The whole thing will literally be crowned (Spanish "corona") on the same weekend (7th/8th March) in the streets of Madrid to celebrate International Women's Day with kettledrums and trumpets and thousands(!) of participants, including political actors. Four days later: Covid-19 explodes and a national emergency is declared in Spain. Meanwhile the situation there is as catastrophic as in Italy. Other sources of infection have long since been established, for example in South Tyrol. And on the Austrian side, in Ischgl, the ski and après-ski gala continues cheerfully well into March - with the well-known consequences in Tyrol as well as for the regions of origin of many who (really unsuspecting?) spent their holidays there. Here the fun society, there the repressed corona danger. Politics in deep sleep And politics, what has she been doing all this time? - She was asleep. Her first appeals for a certain "social distancing" also largely evaporated; it was only at the turn of the month that some countries introduced tentative regulations limiting the number of visitors at major events: initially to 1,000 (a farce!), and then only a few slices were "patched up". Emmanuel Macron (France) and Simonetta Sommaruga (Switzerland) were among the first heads of state to react. Germany, confident in its good health infrastructure, was slow to follow suit. And in Luxembourg, no less than on 11 March (!) assemblies with over 1,000 people (!) were banned. The number of cases continues to rise, no wonder, rapidly, people get scared, buy toilet paper - and suddenly even politicians are panicking on the Titanic: iceberg ahead, engines stop - but how to slow down the ship so quickly? The emergency braking, which the government has hectically initiated, can only prevent Italian conditions from arising - but not the collision with the iceberg itself. It is to be hoped that the message of unconditional "social distancing" has now reached really everyone. The fact that even the last indomitable ones who flock together in "normal" times in public facilities or on Friday nights at a well-known Leudelingen gas station to "chill out" or party understand that the word herd immunity does not mean that their compulsive group behavior would make them immune to the virus. It is important that strict action is now taken in such cases. Finding the middle way However, we must warn against throwing out the child (the other one who is not yet in the well) with the bathwater again right now, i.e. imposing a complete curfew, proclaiming a kind of police state and thus putting the majority of the population - who by now know themselves how to protect themselves and others - in a war-like scenario. In contrast to Spain or France, it must continue to be possible to move around alone in public spaces. Disciplined, at a distance from others! That must be enough. We are not in "war" (as Macron, Trump and occasionally Bettel use to express themselves), but in a serious fight against a treacherous virus. No more and no less. The current crisis management of Health Minister Paulette Lenert is convincing. The fact that the behaviour of our and other governments was anything but pro-active in the previous month is currently better covered in a cloak of silence. The system is now heading for the "peak" in the Covid 19 cases. If society follows the current rules, the curve of new infections should flatten out by mid-April. The all-clear may not be given yet: summer may weaken the virus, which is not very heat-resistant, but caution with contacts is still necessary as long as natural herd immunity has not yet developed. Initial approaches to drugs and vaccines promise hope. However, the latter will first have to undergo longer test phases. The consequences for the economy are likely to be more serious in the long term. To cushion these, support and a sense of proportion are needed. After a certain period of time, corporate and business life will have to continue on the back burner. Simply too many human existences depend on it. The economic and also social damage of an excessively long shutdown risks becoming far worse than the purely health-related consequences of Covid-19. A real dilemma for politicians, who now have to find a happy medium between the calls of the economy and the imperative of public health. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) PS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_Chinese#Country_statistics