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Rapper Smudo from Fantastischen Vier wants Health Minister Jens Spahn to call him back to the party. This is an application that could be of great help in the Corona crisis.
Concert tickets are usually a classic Christmas gift. This year they were probably under some trees. The uncertainty is too great for many people in the corona pandemic.
Rapper Michael “Smudo” Schmidt (52) from Fantastischen Vier believes that events or visits to bars and private parties could be carried out with less risk despite the virus crisis. A conversation about Christmas, the culture industry and an application that aims to restore normality and in which he is involved.
t-online: Doctors have almost begged that people have as few contacts as possible during Christmas. How is it with you?
Smudo: My wife and I have three children, so we have a busy enough Christmas in terms of numbers. Grandmothers and grandfathers are skped. But they also live in other cities, unfortunately we will have to give up any “snowfall” from neighbors or friends of the house during the holidays.
Did the Schmidt family have concert tickets under the tree as a gift?
It’s not that we don’t go to concerts from time to time. But as a Christmas surprise it has a charm similar to that of a restaurateur who gives his children a restaurant night. Our children are not great concert goers. But I have cards on the board that are still pending redemption. My favorite comedian, American Louis CK, would have come to Berlin this year. No matter when, I’ll go there and the letters will hang here so long. As a symbol of hope.
For the Christmas show “Frohes Fest” Michael “Michi” Beck, Thomas D (ürr), Andreas “And.Ypsilon” Rieke, Michael “Smudo” Schmidt and the band were together on stage – all tested beforehand.
How were your greetings this Christmas? What do you wish your colleagues and friends in 2020?
In fact, I wish us and my fellow fans and musicians good health this year, and I mean it globally. We are all the hosts of this virus and consequently, I always wish you a “get well soon.” But before that there is always a conversation with many sad stories. The impacts are coming. More and more people know at least someone who knows someone who is sick. From time to time tragic. And really everyone has something to report on economic disasters or interpersonal sadness.
But is there at least hope that bigger concerts will take place again starting in the summer?
I hope you are safe. But when it will really be possible to go to concerts closely again in the audience, I do not even dare to imagine in a dream. But I think there will have to be methods in the future that can be implemented and financed with hygiene measures. The vaccines that are now beginning are certainly helpful.
And who comes to a concert that shows proof of vaccination at the ticket inspection?
First, that would not be fair, and second, it would not be realistic. It takes a long time and generations of vaccines before Corona is eradicated. Over time, the therapy options and the level of Covid-19 vaccination will eliminate the scare. However, I assume that hygiene measures will be with us for much more than a year. All things considered, I think a combination of vaccinations, hygiene measures, rapid tests, and cluster tracking software can pave the way for us to reach a fairly comfortable new normal. I have great hope in our Luca projectbecause it can relieve health authorities in the long run.
And it is already in use.
Yes, Luca already started as a model in Jena. Documentation requirements will be digitized and registration and transmission of contact details will be a breeze. Full monitoring works, chains of infection can be stopped quickly, and contact persons can be notified in case of infection.
Could they be the visitors to a concert of the Fantas …?
We think of the events industry, of course. But there is still a long way to go before our concerts, a lot can happen. Luca could perhaps increase the maximum number of concertgoers. In the summer there were only 1,000 visitors. But that’s not what we urgently have in mind. Concerts are important to us, but only a small facet of Luca and of most people’s daily life. We need solutions much earlier for many areas of life. It is more about public cultural life in general, for example in gastronomy …
… where you often had to fill scraps of paper with lists of names …
The paper mess is from the day before yesterday. At Luca, you sign up with a tamper-proof QR code that changes every ten minutes and …
Scan the QR code when registering, but it already exists.
It doesn’t stop with the acquisition! Until now, the health department has had to wait for a PDF or Excel file from the host with data that must be entered as manually as countless notes completed by guests, and then must be over the phone. Something like that does not relieve anyone! In Luca’s app, the message goes directly to other guests who were in the place or pub at the same time as the infected person. Quickly and directly connected to the health department.
And data protection?
As before, with scraps of paper and hand-stamped applications, the data is in the restaurant or with the application operator. With us, they are encrypted in a decentralized way and cannot be read by anyone on individual devices. I find it shocking that in some places, including politics, there is talk of softening data protection to fight the pandemic.
How does it really work differently when Luca is at work?
In case of infection, the health department asks the interested party to share their history of controls with the authority. The health department then informs all the hosts and organizers and asks them to post the visitors’ QR codes on the Luca system. Only the health department can decrypt it and then inform other guests directly through the app if they are at risk based on their check-in history.
Have the Fantastic Four now passed into the hands of the developers?
I’m an old computer fanatic, I instinctively like these software developments, and as a band we’ve always been interested in innovative projects. But the developers are from neXenio, a spin-off from the Hasso Plattner Institute. They worked with the Bundesdruckerei and the Fraunhofer Institute. We met through a mutual acquaintance who is also a creative artist. We have been excited about the idea ever since and are acting as ambassadors.
And does everyone do it for the love of culture?
I know this may sound romantic, but the answer is essentially “yes.” For all of us, the main thing is above all that cultural events do not stain more. Because the above methods are so inefficient, we have to go from one lock to another. I see myself as a participating activist and act according to the motto “Thinking is better than thinking laterally”. We do not sell the expensive ones Tshirts No consideration, but a functional and safe relief tool that costs to install and operate. Getting public life back on track should also be worth something to the state, and it pays for itself in many ways. It will be free for users and hosts. Otherwise it doesn’t make any sense.
But do the health authorities say that some of them are still sending faxes? Should they use a new interface in Germany?
Preparation time is less than five hours. Most health authorities have it too. Anyway, I think faxes have bad cards in the pandemic. Work is also currently under way on the introduction of a digital standard. I think we can worry about faxes soon.
So it just has to be great politics?
That would be our big Christmas wish. Sad that there is rant about data protection, the lock does not end, whereas we have had a solution ready in Jena for months and on Sylt before introduction. RKI epidemiologist Dirk Brockmann sat with me at “Maischberger” and thinks Luca is “super smart”. The health authorities with whom we are in contact are delighted with the relief it can provide. It seems to me that you are still hearing this in federal politics. For a good six months they have complained about how overburdened the health authorities are, and we have a solution that individual health authorities are already celebrating, and neither Health Minister Jens Spahn nor Christian Drosten are calling again.
Are you scared that it is filing for bankruptcy from the Corona warning app?
On the contrary. Corona Warning App is the individual corona radar for my immediate environment. Luca is the safe, fast and direct documentation system. The two apps strengthen each other.
