The 4 simple reasons Germany is managing Covid-19 better than its neighbors

[malaise]

https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/21495327/covid-19-germany-coronavirus-cases-deaths?__twitter_impression=true


Even as coronavirus cases surge across the continent — the week prior to October 11 saw the largest increase since the beginning of the pandemic — Germany’s latest wave is still small relative to other countries in the region.
So what exactly is Germany getting right?

What’s often cited is an effective deployment of technology, such as a contact tracing app, to fight the pandemic. There’s the frequently praised mass testing program, which rivals South Korea’s, and the oversupply of ICU beds — controversial before the coronavirus, now lauded. It also helps that Angela Merkel has a doctorate in quantum chemistry and heads a country that treats scientists, like the Berlin-based virologist and podcaster Christian Drosten, like superstars.

I heard, again and again, four explanations for the country’s coronavirus success. They had nothing to do with tech, Merkel, or hospital beds. And they’ve been largely overlooked.

Let’s call them the L’s: luck, learning, local responses, and listening. While the pandemic certainly isn’t over, and Germany is facing a pivotal moment with a record number of new infections, these factors may be the reason Germany bends the curve quickly once again.

The power of luck
Günter Fröschl, a tropical medicine doctor at Munich University, has been leading Germany’s longest-running Covid-19 testing unit. He’s been at it so long, he swabbed four of the first five coronavirus patients in late January. At that time, his fiancée — another infectious disease specialist — happened to be working in Brescia, Italy, ground zero of Europe’s deadliest Covid-19 outbreak. The two were on the phone every day comparing notes, and Fröschl concluded the only reason the paths of the two countries diverged so widely early on in the pandemic was something both countries had no control over.

The first known Covid-19 cases in Germany originated in a Munich-area auto parts firm called Webasto. There, an employee from China — who tested positive for the virus after returning home — infected several others during a visit to Munich. When she notified her German counterparts of her positive test result, the company informed its staff, including one employee who, despite not having serious symptoms, sought out a test.

[Trumpocalypse]

1. Germans are also really good at

following orders. Lol.

[KentuckyWoman]

3. That's offensive and you know why.

Germans are very good at respecting science and working as a community.

[Trumpocalypse]

4. It was a joke

Lighten up.

[KentuckyWoman]

6. I was already aware of that

You might want to rethink your "jokes" because this one is offensive and not funny. "Lighten up" has nothing to do with it.

[Trumpocalypse]

9. Lighten up

[PTWB]

7. Is it your belief that a joke cannot be offensive?

[Trumpocalypse]

8. No

But some people can be over sensitive and looking for an excuse to be offended.

[PTWB]

11. And some people can tell an extremely offensive joke

But refuse to listen when folks tell them it sincerely offends them.

[Trumpocalypse]

14. Lighten up

But thanks for proving my point.

[PTWB]

17. "It's just a prank, bro"

[Cha]

10. Well said.. It was insensitive,

offensive, and sure as hell not "funny".

[tormadjax]

19. You are correct. n/t

[BigmanPigman]

2. And now team tRump wants to scale back testing.

[appalachiablue]

5. That's right, more sickness & insanity

[SheltieLover]

12. Germany's leader is a scientist, a physicist

She has a functional brain AND her mission is not to kill and disable citizens, destroy the economy, and create as much chaos as possible to please putin.

[malaise]

13. She has a PhD in Quantum Chemistry

She's one hell of a scientist.

Reason still rules in Germany

[SheltieLover]

18. Quite a contrast

To the international embarrassment in States.

[BumRushDaShow]

15. I saw the blip of an article earlier today about something else Germany did

One version of what happened from Deutsche Welle - https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-berlin-withdraws-ad-giving-the-finger-to-anti-maskers/a-55279315



Of course that garnered a whole lot of pushback and the ad was eventually pulled... but still...

[malaise]

16. LOL

Kind of rude but I get it