Virologist Hendrik Streeck compared the treatment of unvaccinated people during the pandemic to the persecution of Jews during the plague. “We, as a society, have not dealt well with people who did not want to be vaccinated. Some of them have been excluded, defamed and discredited. They were blamed for this pandemic,” said Streeck to the magazine “Focus”. That was wrong, said the virologist. “The culprits were sought, as was done with the Jews in the plague and with homosexuals in the case of HIV. We have not learned from our history. The real enemy is the virus, not people.”
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The health policy spokesman for the Greens in the Bundestag, Janosch Dahmen, criticized Streeck’s statements on Friday evening. “Comparing pandemic protection measures for unvaccinated people with the persecution of Jewish people trivializes anti-Semitism and the horrors of history. Millions owe their lives to the corona vaccination,” wrote Dahmen at X. Such comparisons are historically forgotten and unworthy.
According to the Jewish General The Jewish population was falsely accused of being responsible for the plague in the 14th century. During the plague years 1348 to 1351, 2,000 Jews were murdered in a pogrom in Strasbourg alone, and pogroms also occurred elsewhere.
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During demonstrations against the Corona measures, participants repeatedly wore the Star of David and compared the enforcement of the Corona measures with the persecution of Jews during the Nazi terror. This led to numerous investigations into sedition.
Streeck is director of the Institute for Virology at the University Hospital of Bonn. During the corona pandemic, he became one of the best-known scientists in the country through numerous media appearances. The 47-year-old is running for the Bundestag next year for the CDU.
RND/seb
