Immunity Certificates
Germany’s Der Spiegel has reported that Germany
will issue “immunity certificates” to those testing positive for Coronavirus
antibodies. Certificate holders,
presumably free of the virus, can return to the work force and are not subject
to social distancing. It turns out that this proposed program would apply to
100,000 subjects and the first results would not be available until the end of
April. It is unclear whether the program has been approved.
On Trump’s handling of the crisis
DeutscheWelle, the government funded German
international broadcaster, posted the following virulent anti-Trump opinion
piece on its international news site:
In the United States, the
administration first attempted to portray COVID-19 as a hoax (See Fact Check
for rebuttal), and then tried to present it as something far less deadly than
health officials had warned. Ultimately left with no other choice, US President
Donald Trump was forced into action as the coronavirus began to quickly spread
across the country. In doing so, he never missed the opportunity to make
crystal clear that his top priority was the health of the US's economy and
not its
citizens. The country now has more
infections than any other.
Masks
Don’t Help?
In its news broadcast of April 1, a German government spokesman advised
against the use of surgical masks by the population. He claimed they do not
help against Coronavirus. The German government’s unambiguous stance is in
contrast to the controversy on the subject of masks in the
United States.
Why
Germany has the lowest mortality rate
One school
of thought is that Coronavirus was introduced into Germany and spread by predominantly
young people returning from skiing in Italy and France or from reveling in
Fasching in Cologne. We would need the age distributions of Coronavirus victims
to test this proposition.
Merkel
Seems to approve Tracing Aps for Smartphones
Germany has a long history of fear of government
surveillance. Apparently eight European countries are cooperating on developing a tracing app, which will
automatically notify those who have had contact with an infected/exposed?
person. From her shelter-in-place, Merkel spoke favorably of the concept.
