Commission to be established
Scientists are calling for the corona measures to be reviewed
04/19/2023 10:33 am
After three years of the corona pandemic, crisis management must be put to the test, demands a group led by virologists Stöhr and Schmidt-Chanasit. This requires a commission that does not follow any political interests. They are not alone in their push.
How did Germany get through the Corona crisis, where was it clearly lacking in crisis management, and what lessons can be learned: These questions should be clarified by an independent commission, according to a group of almost 40 scientists. These included the virologists Klaus Stöhr, Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit and the President of the European Academy of Nursing Science, Gabriele Meyer.
The Commission should act “as depersonalized as possible and independent of political interests” and national and international expertise should be sought, according to a letter available to ntv.de. The experiences of the population should also flow into the work of the commission “in an appropriate manner”.
The scientists from disciplines such as medical statistics, law, psychology and sociology warn that without reappraisal only mistakes would be repeated. And the reaction to the threat of the virus was “not optimal in many respects,” they say. The already discussed length of daycare, school and university closures are mentioned. In addition, there is now the insight that “mental and social isolation of the most vulnerable groups”, such as people with mental illness and the very old, “are collateral damage of insufficiently balanced protective measures”.
Crisis management: head of the panel doctor, FDP and Union want answers
The previous reflection on the corona pandemic is insufficient and requires a systematic review. According to the letter, the commission should pay particular attention to the health and education systems, as well as economic and social impacts. But the “learning progress of the last three years” and comparisons with other countries as well as positive examples of crisis management should also be included in the Commission’s assessment.
The scientists do not make any concrete suggestions as to who could take on such a review of the pandemic. The demand for a review is not new. The head of statutory health insurance physicians, Andreas Gassen, emphasized at the beginning of the month that all measures taken during the pandemic had to be checked carefully for their effectiveness.
There are already similar demands from politicians. Both the FDP and the Union in the Bundestag are calling for a closer look at the Corona policy. According to the health policy spokesman for the Union faction, Tino Sorge, the Commission needs to better prepare the country for future pandemics. The commission was to work with scientists, experts and members of the Bundestag to shed light on the political decisions since the outbreak of the pandemic and, above all, their effects on society and the economy.
