ZeroCovid: a radical plan to fight the coronavirus: prepared to free Europe not only from the virus

Ms Brinkmann, like Michael Meyer-Hermann, a modeler of the dynamics of virus spread, is part of Angela Merkel’s team of pandemic advisers. Every now and then, revolutionary ZeroCovid reflectors have fallen on them. Because, as many political commentators have pointed out, ZeroCovid activists set out to change the hated system under the guise of a pandemic.

Launched in mid-January, the ZeroCovid initiative proposes to “close factories, offices, businesses, construction sites, schools and abolish employment” across Europe, “to end all non-subsistence activities, especially the economy” , thus minimizing people-contacts-to-people.

This “solidarity quarantine” should continue until there are no more infected coronaviruses in Europe.

To cover the huge costs involved, an EU-wide tax should be introduced to be paid by businesses from their own profits and the wealthiest. After all, according to the authors of ZeroCovid, European societies have accumulated great wealth that has been “appropriated” by a small group of people.

Here are some more interesting points about ZeroCovid: employees of companies closed during quarantine “must be fully compensated through joint and solidarity financing”; homeless people must stay in empty hotels; all health and nursing institutions must be nationalized; vaccines must “be taken out of private for-profit enterprises”, they must “belong to all humanity” because they are “the product of the creative cooperation of many people”.

Semi-authoritarian fantasies

As can be seen, ZeroCovid activists set out to rid the world not only of the virus, but also of “exploited capital.”

It is no coincidence that this plan to fight the pandemic has received great support from the “revolutionary left.” For example, the Class-to-Class portal has exacerbated the already radical demands of the initiative, simply stating in Lenin style: “Therefore, quarantine must be pursued in the interest of capital.”

The pro-initiative leftist newspaper Neues Deutschland was outraged that under capitalism the government was only concerned with making a profit, not one man, and lamented that there was “no real basis for power” to implement the ZeroCovid plan.

It is true that the ZeroCovid campaign on the left wing of the media also raised suspicions: the left-wing daily Tageszeitung called the pandemic a “semi-authoritarian fantasy” and the Süddeutsche Zeitung commentator “reminded Venezuela” of the initiative.

The ZeroCovid emblem has brought together a veritable “coalition of freedom skeptics who have completely paralyzed society and the economy,” said Ulf Poschardt, editor-in-chief of Die Welt.

“The crisis is of great benefit to them, so that under its guise they can finally reshape society, regulate and redistribute, to finally embark on the left dream of a system change away from a liberal market economy democracy , ” he said.

In Germany, there is a trend to extremes: zero combat, zero CO2 emissions

According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Tuesday, the ZeroCovid initiative has so far collected more than 86,000 signatures.

Sponsors include scientists, doctors, trade unionists and cultural creators. Luisa Neubauer, Germany’s top climate activist, Ruben Neugebauer, an activist with the Sea-Watch group rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean, and members of the No Borders movement, were among the first to sign.

Some political commentators see a parallel between the goal of “zero combat” and zero CO2 emissions, and not just in terms of absolute goals. In both cases, the slogans of redistribution, nationalization and transformation of the entire world are raised in the face of the apocalypse.

This is probably how some Germans tend to be extreme idealists or even totalitarians, not many have commented.

Interestingly, even Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have linked the pandemic to climate change at a virtual World Economic Forum on Tuesday.

According to Merkel, the pandemic “exposed our vulnerability to climate change”, and von der Leyen called for the implementation of Europe’s New Green Deal without delay: “If we do not act fast enough to protect our environment, we will soon have new pandemics.”

ZeroCovid Supporter – German Chancellery?

For a time, there was even the impression that the radical ZeroCovid movement had “secret allies in the Federal Chancellery,” said Robin Alexander, deputy editor-in-chief of Die Welt and a correspondent for the federal government. And not without reason.

The ZeroCovid campaign was fueled by the initiative of 300 No Covid scientists, published in The Lancet on December 18.

Among the signatories are the Chancellor’s advisers on pandemic issues, German virologists Christian Drosten and Melanie Brinkmann.

ZeroCovid’s call for stricter quarantine across Europe is backed by infection researcher and modeler Michael Meyer-Hermann, who has been advising Merkel since the fall and warning not to rush to ease restrictions until a coronavirus reproduction index of 0.2 or 0.3.

Zero Fight was a significant target, he said of the ZeroCovid initiative for German radio Deutschlandfunk.

M. Brinkmann, professor of virology, also sets the goal of living without the virus. But now that ZeroCovid has been harshly criticized in the media for radical political demands and totalitarian fantasies, the Chancellor’s consultancy asks not to mention her name in that context.

No Covid Initiators Don’t Want To Be Confused With ZeroCovid Radicals

Mr. Brinkmann is January 18. co-author of the published document No Covid. This strategy was formulated by 13 renowned experts from various fields of science: medicine, pedagogy, economics, sociology, physics, virology. They focus on the examples of Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan or Finland and aim to radically reduce the number of infections: initially no more than 10 infections per 100,000 inhabitants per week and then to zero.

“We must put out this fire. Only when we have no more infections will we be able to put an end to this eternal cycle of constant hardening with an uncertain end,” said the virologist of the Tagesschau news station.

The authors of No Covid propose dividing Germany, and preferably Europe as a whole, into regions: green areas where it will be possible to return to normal life and red areas, which would be isolated as a result of a new outbreak. of infection.

This, according to the authors, would motivate people at least to earn a normal living in their region.

The two co-authors of the document, virologist M. Brinkmann and infection modeler M. Meyer-Hermann, also participated in the latest summit of the coronavirus crisis convened by Chancellor Merkel on January 19.

Other risks associated with the No Covid strategy

However, the authors of the No Covid strategy were soon criticized. Virologist, former director of the WHO global influenza program Klaus Stöhr, physician Matthias Schrappe and other experts said it was an illusion to reach fewer than 50 infections in a seven-day period during the cold season.

“The virus has not been eradicated in 14 days, not even in China,” said Markus Scholz, professor of epidemiology.

Economists are particularly skeptical of all zero-fight campaigns. Professor Michael Hüther, director of the German Institute for Economics (IW), commented: “It took only the Australian city of Melbourne three months to reach zero winnings. Such a burden would be unbearable for an industrialized country in Germany. “

“This zero defense strategy will protect people from coronavirus infection, but there are a variety of other health risks associated with it: distance learning of children at home, telecommuting, loneliness, breaking of social contacts, job loss, business closings and economic losses, ”named economics professor Thomas Straubhaar.

“We cannot protect life by ending life together”

The No Covid document presented to the Federal Chancellery as a basis for decisions explains that quarantine is not a risk factor, on the contrary, it can be seen as a ‘resource factor’.
“Such a statement just smells of arrogance,” said Jan Fleischauer, author of Fokus magazine.

The publicist, one of the leading authors of the daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, Heribert Prantl, also accused the providers of all these zero strategies of deviating from reality.

ZeroCovid campaign activists constantly mention solidarity, but “what kind of solidarity can we talk about here if quarantine restrictions affect people so differently?” He asked rhetorically.

According to H. Prantley, only those who, as civil servants, continue to receive guaranteed salaries can offer a strategy of months of quarantine.

Many people are in grave danger of their existence, and most of them no longer know what they will live on soon, according to readers’ letters, H. Prantlis emotionally taught on the Austrian television talk show Servus. The quarantine is a “brutal lack of imagination,” he criticized the pandemic policy.

“We cannot protect life by ending life together, and now we are ending our entire social life,” he concluded.