“Corona is an idiot”: Steinmeier gives voice to recovered Covid 19

Tuesday, November 10, 2020

By Heike Boese, Berlin

Politicians, virologists, professors and critics of Corona: all speak out during the crisis. Sometimes loud, sometimes silent. The federal president is now inviting five former Covid 19 sufferers to Bellevue Palace to get their perspective on things. And to give them a voice.

Above all, Joachim Huber is happy that he did not infect anyone. Nobody from his family and nobody else. At least that, otherwise the 62-year-old Berlin journalist doesn’t see anything good in recent months since he was infected with the corona virus in March. Nothing at all. On this gray November day, Joachim Huber sits next to the Federal President at Bellevue Palace and says, “Corona is an idiot.” Just because. And anyone who hears him recount his medical history can’t blame him for this drastic choice of words. On the contrary, in the end you can understand it.

The head of state, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, has invited five former Covid 19 patients, who are now healthy again, to look at the Corona crisis from their point of view: in addition to Huber, 62, there is a professor 31-year-old yoga teacher, 46-year-old pulmonologist, 26-year-old technical assistance organization employee, and 20-year-old pop singer. Three of the former patients are connected via video from their places of origin.

The corona virus had caught them all, but Joachim Huber in particular had been left out of his shoes. Doctors speak of a “particularly severe course” in such a case. He himself says: “It started with a fever and shortness of breath and ended in a terrible experience.” Huber was in a coma for a total of five weeks, had to be ventilated, his kidneys failed, and eventually he even had a heart attack. When he woke up again, he could barely move because his muscles had almost completely receded. “If I wanted to drink or eat something, I had to wait for a nurse to straighten me up. Nothing worked. The muscles recoil like butter melts in the sun.”

“Difficult routes are on the rise”

Although it has since started working again, it is still a long way to go to be fully restored. He wears an orthosis on his left leg because his foot is still numb and it just isn’t doing what it should. “Even the edge of a carpet could become an obstacle, or at least a serious tripping hazard.” But Joachim Huber really wants to dance again, no later than next March, a year after his illness, it should be that time. That is why he constantly uses all the rehab offers. Now that his gym is closed, he works out at home with Youtube videos. Everyday.

When he talks about it, he seems very disciplined. You can train your body and your muscles. He has no control over the nightmares that haunt him to this day. In the worst case, he dreams that his father-in-law has died. So realistic that he even offered his condolences to his wife. The impressions of this disease must be so dramatic that it asks people who deny Corona, minimize danger, or consciously endanger themselves and others as well, to refrain from treatment if the worst happens. “Why should you seek treatment for a disease that you don’t think exists?”

Dr. Heinz-Wilhelm Esser is a pulmonologist and directs pulmonology at the Sana Clinic in Remscheid. He himself was infected with the corona virus and can understand when someone has thoughts like Joachim Huber, even though such considerations are taboo for him as a doctor. The 46-year-old doctor is currently very concerned that Covid-19 patients are “getting younger and younger and difficult courses are increasing.” The situation is still under control, but that could change at any time.

Still, the doctor says patient care is very good. “If it gets infected with Corona, at least in Germany.” But even here, people infected with corona die every day. In this context, doctors are amazed at how the virus can be minimized, minimized or even denied. You would like to “invite these people to one of my Covid stations.” Anyone who has seen his patients isolated, confined, sometimes dying alone, would lose the assumption that it was all just one big conspiracy, he says.

Sweats and panic attacks

Nadja Alzner also continues to struggle with the long-term consequences of corona infection. The yoga teacher is 31 years old and has no previous illness. So she is far from a risk group and she is still sick, not as bad as Joachim Huber, but also with bad symptoms. “I couldn’t speak anymore, I didn’t swallow anymore and I had to get myself a notebook. That’s how I communicated with my friend.” He suffered from night sweats and panic attacks. Like many other corona patients, he could no longer taste or smell anything. “We squeezed garlic into a lemon, nothing. There was just nothing.” The sense of taste is now making a comeback, but it has changed.

The federal president has spoken several times during the pandemic, but he also knows that he almost never reaches the youngest with a televised speech. That is why Frank-Walter Steinmeier is happy that Mike Singer is there via video connection. The 20-year-old musician, a future jury member for RTL’s “Deutschland Such den Superstar”, went public with his crown disease in the summer. He has 1.4 million followers on Instagram. Use this range to appeal to your fans to take precautionary measures seriously. “I never expected it to infect me.” Singer says he was “a family man” and above all, he did not want to endanger his grandparents, so he isolated himself at the time. When asked by the federal president what politicians can do to help artists like him, Singer replies, “I’m fine because I’m broad-based. But my team sucks. My stage builders or sound engineers are bad. They need help. . “

All those who are arguing with the federal president that day are stunned and angry when the discussion reaches the rally of Corona critics last Saturday in Leipzig. Steinmeier emphasizes that the right to demonstrate is a valuable asset, but he also says: “Recklessness is not a right to freedom … – … where tens of thousands of people ignore the requirements, scoff at the rules and not they keep their distance or wear masks, borders are crossed. ” Society must publicly discuss the ways and means to combat the pandemic. Demonstrations should be possible. “But the freedom to demonstrate is not the freedom to endanger others. Those who don’t follow the rules ignore the fact that they are putting other people at risk. It is not just about freedom without a mask. It is also about freedom. of the freedom of others. “