Markus Lanz: ZDF talk on Corona – "Why do you always have to use this alarmist tone?"

Markus Lanz on ZDF is once again about the corona pandemic. The host complains: “There is an apocalypse every day, so to speak.”

Hamburg – “I’ve seen it all a thousand times”, in 1980 Peter Hein from the NDW flagship band Fehlfarben, which still exists today, sang his anger out of his body in the song “Grauschleier” on the legendary debut album “Monarchy and Everyday Life”, to continue pointedly, “I know life, I’ve been to the cinema!” Or in 2022 viewers at Markus Lanz on ZDF. Because one thing is as certain as the amen in church: no matter how much you go in circles with Corona, the constant topic of conversation for the last two years, in the end the principle of hope is always sought.

Before it happens late on Tuesday evening, as expected, Manuela Schwesig, as Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, defends the tough corona course in her state and, at the moderator’s request, comes out as a proponent of mandatory vaccination. However, the SPD politician does not include children without specifying an age limit. A little pale that evening, Dr. Johannes Nießen. From the head of the Cologne health department, the largest in Germany, one does not learn more than what has long been known: “We have been at the limit for two years.”

Markus Lanz (ZDF): Pros and Cons of Corona vaccination

The two other studio guests, however, do much better: Epidemiologist Prof. Dr. Timo Ulrichs not only expresses himself “thanks” to Omikron about the increasing number of infections, but also expertly predicts the possible further course. And the young world domestic policy expert Kaja Klapsa, with the support of Markus Lanz, astutely questions some of the measures taken by the federal and state governments to break the acute wave. She also speaks out vehemently against compulsory vaccination. So this time you have at least two different fronts instead of the sometimes monotonous consonance of previous programs.

Of course, none of them can predict the end of the pandemic. According to Ulrichs, the current situation, which is still alarming, must lead to an endemic situation. Before that, however, Markus Lanz (ZDF) would like to know from Manuela Schwesig why boosted people are now allowed to go back to the restaurant immediately in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, when the vaccine would only develop its effectiveness a few days after the injection. When he looks into the almost frightened face of the First Lady von Meck-Pomm on the large monitor installed in the studio, he, who has often questioned nonsensical measures of the old and new government, rows back a little embarrassed: “Or am I there too severe?”

Markus Lanz (ZDF): Manuela Schwesig advocates consistent corona measures

The former Federal Minister for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth in the Merkel III cabinet gratefully resigns. With all the tightening of the health protection of the citizens, one also wants to relax where it is possible. However, she does not really answer Lanz’s first, perfectly justified question. She prefers to speak of the fact that she has always advocated uniform national regulations in the MPKs (Minster Presidents’ Conferences).

And then she repeats what her (and the other politicians in this country) the scientific advisors constantly tell her: “With 2G plus and contact restrictions, including those who have been vaccinated and boosted, you are better protected against serious illness”. In addition: “In the pandemic, our goal is that the health system is not overloaded.” Politically, it is about ensuring that in an emergency everyone in our country can be cared for in intensive care units, “whether I have a heart attack or Corona “.

She does not see the defeat before the court in Greifswald. One can be divided, since the corona warning level system in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania was partially overturned because the capacity utilization in the intensive care units (ITS) was incorrectly measured. In the new version, only the ITS beds intended for Covid 19 patients (approx. 100) are used as a benchmark to determine the ITS utilization. The decision is aimed specifically against parts of the new version of the Corona state ordinance. In the previous version of the regulation, the total number of intensive care beds (600) was decisive.

Markus Lanz (ZDF): Intensive care units reached their limits before Christmas due to Corona

When the talk show host Markus Lanz accused her several times that her state government presented the 100 corona beds as 100 percent of the intensive care capacities, she went over to the counterattack: “Mr. Lanz, sorry, I have to contradict you: you represent that really wrongly. (… ) That is not right. That is not a defeat either, Mr. Lanz – on the contrary. “The court’s decision that the overall situation in the intensive care units must be reported will be followed:” We will do that now. But that doesn’t change the rules in the country at all. To be honest, we were actually happy about the verdict because it confirmed that it was primarily about the intensive capacities. “

Before Christmas, other important operations, such as those for cancer patients, were postponed. Epidemiologist Timo Ulrichs agrees on ZDF that some of the intensive care units had reached their limits before the festival. “We have to worry,” says medical doctor Johannes Nießen. The host is not defeated: “Why do you always have to use this alarmist tone?”, He complains, “There is an apocalypse every day, so to speak, and possibly there is no apocalypse at all. That’s the feeling that a lot of people have. ”Ulrich counters for Schwesig. What did Lanz understand by the term? Wouldn’t the prognosis of the World Health Authority (WHO) that every second European was infected with omicrons in March be apocalyptic enough?

ZDF talk at Markus Lanz: Is there a corona vaccination requirement?

In Kaja Klapsa the ex- “Wetten, dass ..?” – presenter Markus Lanz finds an ally. Not everyone who demonstrates on the street against the current measures and a compulsory vaccination, which Karl Lauterbach’s predecessor as Minister of Health, Jens Spahn (CDU), has “categorically” excluded on several occasions, is “right-wing radical” or a “lateral thinker”. Politicians always speak of a “small minority”, although 12.5 million adults have not yet received basic immunization. People who would have accepted a limitation of their rights of freedom would most likely not allow themselves to be forced to have a corona vaccination through fines. Klapsa expects at most that a vaccination will be implemented for people over the age of 50: “But as of now, I would say: She won’t come at all.”

She warned politicians against promoting a division in society by leaning critical voices all together. Here she is absolutely right. First of all, the word “lateral thinker” did not have a negative connotation a few years ago, because it has absolutely nothing in common with the instrumentalized and radicalized mob who use violence against police officers and organize torchlight procession in front of the houses of politicians, but rather referred to reflective contemporaries that way who question streamlining. Second, you have to take seriously people who are annoyed by the poor or slowed down organization of the overburdened health authorities. She kept hearing that their quarantine letters would only have reached those infected with corona after they had recovered. That would not exactly strengthen the belief in politics, science and authorities in this country. Im obligation on suspicion does not go at all.

Markus Lanz breaks a lance for culture on ZDF

Markus Lanz (ZDF) happily breaks a lance for culture again. He would like to find out from Manuela Schwesig why restaurants in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania are allowed to remain open, while cinemas in which it can be proven that no one has been infected with hygiene protection concepts must remain closed. Here, too, the 47-year-old Prime Minister, who is also chairman of the mediation committee of the Bundestag and Bundesrat together with Hermann Gröhe (CDU), evades: More people would meet in movie theaters than in restaurants. You have to correct them here: Small box-type cinemas often have less capacity than large restaurants or taverns.

Then the presenter on ZDF has an “electrifying thought”: Omikron is incredibly contagious, but it is often much milder than previous Corona variants! He needs a little hope to be shot down, he pleadingly turns to Ulrichs. “Yes, yes, I have been here a long time and often, but at some point it will be enough”, this ensures the real satirical moment of the evening.

Through constant vaccination worldwide (actual side effects, which are mostly dismissed as “statistical noise”, he does not address) and contamination, according to Nießen, “the pandemic could be defeated by the endemic”. And: “We would then no longer have to learn new Greek letters”. Ulrich’s comparison that the new HIV infections in South Africa have fallen sharply because the country had been confronted with this also merciless virus for decades does not really have a calming effect. The crisis as an opportunity? Ernst Bloch’s principle of hope was different. (Marc Hairapetian)