Who is actually on the Corona Expert Council?
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz has announced that some things will change in the fight against the corona pandemic. It was high time because we are going around in circles. The number of infections is increasing and the measures are being tightened. The number of infections is falling, the measures are ended – and then all over again.
The vaccination was the big hope a year ago, but suddenly the refreshment, the boosting, was inevitable. Vaccination was supposed to protect us from illness and death, but over time more and more vaccine breakthroughs became known, even in intensive care units. Fourth, fifth, sixth waves are coming, fourth, fifth, and sixth booster vaccinations can be expected. A concept of what a life with the virus could look like is not in sight.
Now, finally, one of the first changes is that a panel of experts was convened to combat pandemics. The new health minister even speaks of wanting to rely more on scientific expertise in fighting pandemics. What has been relied on so far? Which sciences does he mean? Why wasn’t there such a body from the beginning of the pandemic? Instead, up to now there has been a suitable virologist or epidemiologist for every concept, for every measure and for every prognosis, who politicians of all stripes could pull out of their hats as needed, as it suited them. So that should finally be the end of it.
The Covid 19 Expert Council consists of 19 experts. If that’s not a good omen! If you look at the top-class list, the first thing you notice is that there are five women, but fourteen men. This is a pity. What catches the eye even more are the sciences represented: medicine, virology, epidemiology, physics, computer science, ethics, they are all there, sometimes even several times. But not there are representatives: inside sociology, education, culture, clinical psychology, economics, law, entrepreneurs, trade unions, geriatrics, child and adolescent psychiatry, nursing science, parents, teachers: inside and the educator: inside: all total nil.
Virus sciences are well represented. In contrast, the sciences of society and the social groups concerned are not represented at all. However, this virus does not rage in any vacuum, but in our concrete society. It is right and important to keep a close eye on the virus. But the changes that the virus and its control are causing in our society must also be closely monitored, because combating the virus can sometimes have worse effects than the virus itself. This is completely ignored with this composition of the expert panel.
Follow-up appointments are the order of the day. Only then will there be a chance for more peace in our increasingly excited, irreconcilable and increasingly divided society.
