The part about the death threats is the clickbaity part, but there is actually interesting stuff in this short interview. Like about camels in the Middle East.
I just posted this to another thread - but I think it would be of value here :
I think it is interesting that the discussions are only framed in measuring deaths, and also focus on deaths of the old.
I'm watching friends and family knocked back by this virus for weeks, and now pushing into months (36 days and 42 days since first symptoms for 2 people I know), and research in the US and China points to the increase in long term health risks in the 20 to 50 year olds that recover from this. I know people that just walk away from this with no impact, but if we only focus on death we are likely missing the bigger picture.
Living in a country led by a Chemistry PhD who lets Dr. Drosten and his colleagues do most of the talking about Covid-19, and has long had some pretty sturdy expectant mother protections in place has been about as good a pandemic experience as I can imagine having as a relatively old pregnant woman. My company medical office called my boss to order me to work from home two days after I decided I'd prefer to - unnecessary, because my boss agreed to let me as soon as I started worrying about it. The next week, we were all ordered to work from home.
I'm flabbergasted every time I see a news story from the US about a pregnant woman worried about having to keep working in a public-contact job with inadequate protection. Here right now, it's completely out of the question; if her employer can't find her a role that doesn't require public contact, she's on medical leave at most of her pay. This is usually the case for preschool workers and some medical professionals, as well as women in jobs that involve exposure to harmful chemicals or biologic agents.
The social protections you describe are not due to Merkel (the Chemistry PhD), but were fought for and won in the 1950s-1980s.
SPD Schroeder started to destroy all protections, and CDU Merkel continued that course.
Germany is a kleptocracy for privileged groups who don't work and have their snouts in the trough, and who import more minimum wage labor to finance and maintain their live style.
The first part of the message is completely valid observation, and historically, there's even longer European tradition of the development of the wide-ranging "protections" of the population that is surely attempted to be destroyed by some forces (present practically in almost all the political parties) in the most recent times.
A crisis like this proves that these kinds of destruction are actually making the society as a whole significantly more fragile or brittle.
Maybe after seeing how relatively well they’ve come through this compared to my folks back home (I’m American), my neighbors will fight harder to keep the things that take some of the sharper edges off life in Germany.
The best thing about the reaction here in Germany (beside 'things working out fine so far') is how unexcitedly things are happening. Nobody is showing off in biohazard suits, no 'fearless' politicians shaking hands in hospitals, just 'There is a problem and we will deal with it'.
After the pandemic (and I hope it will come to an end one day because distancing sucks), we should communicate that the climate crisis shares a lot of properties with the pandemic. It is getting worse the longer we keep doing what we are doing, the consquences are delayed and dire and the efforts required to bring about change are massive. I still think we can deal with this problem as well if we want to, especially now since the 'official future' (basically the assumption that the world will look like it used to) is dead [0] and a lot of things that were accepted until now are questioned.
(To make life easier for future Internet historians: it is Jeff Goldblum in images 1 to 3 (from top-left to bottom-right) and virologist Christian Drosten in the bottom right image.)
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[ 355 ms ] story [ 1119 ms ] threadI think it is interesting that the discussions are only framed in measuring deaths, and also focus on deaths of the old. I'm watching friends and family knocked back by this virus for weeks, and now pushing into months (36 days and 42 days since first symptoms for 2 people I know), and research in the US and China points to the increase in long term health risks in the 20 to 50 year olds that recover from this. I know people that just walk away from this with no impact, but if we only focus on death we are likely missing the bigger picture.
I'm flabbergasted every time I see a news story from the US about a pregnant woman worried about having to keep working in a public-contact job with inadequate protection. Here right now, it's completely out of the question; if her employer can't find her a role that doesn't require public contact, she's on medical leave at most of her pay. This is usually the case for preschool workers and some medical professionals, as well as women in jobs that involve exposure to harmful chemicals or biologic agents.
SPD Schroeder started to destroy all protections, and CDU Merkel continued that course.
Germany is a kleptocracy for privileged groups who don't work and have their snouts in the trough, and who import more minimum wage labor to finance and maintain their live style.
A crisis like this proves that these kinds of destruction are actually making the society as a whole significantly more fragile or brittle.
The best thing about the reaction here in Germany (beside 'things working out fine so far') is how unexcitedly things are happening. Nobody is showing off in biohazard suits, no 'fearless' politicians shaking hands in hospitals, just 'There is a problem and we will deal with it'.
After the pandemic (and I hope it will come to an end one day because distancing sucks), we should communicate that the climate crisis shares a lot of properties with the pandemic. It is getting worse the longer we keep doing what we are doing, the consquences are delayed and dire and the efforts required to bring about change are massive. I still think we can deal with this problem as well if we want to, especially now since the 'official future' (basically the assumption that the world will look like it used to) is dead [0] and a lot of things that were accepted until now are questioned.
(To make life easier for future Internet historians: it is Jeff Goldblum in images 1 to 3 (from top-left to bottom-right) and virologist Christian Drosten in the bottom right image.)
[0] Related: https://www.the-american-interest.com/2017/10/30/official-fu...