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Did the head of SP, Christian Levrat (50), cause the closure of schools? This impression could be gained by those who consulted the account of the decisions in the spring of 2020 in the book “Lockdown” on the research desk of the Tamedia newspapers.
In the current issue of “SonntagsZeitung” two authors describe what happened on the night of Thursday, March 12, in the midst of the Crown crisis. Quotes to the Minister of Health, Alain Berset (48), who describes this Thursday as the day “when things really changed”.
Levrat SMS
At first, it was just about the upper limit of meetings. So if this should be reduced from 1000 people to 500 or 300 participants. Supposedly, Berset wanted to go further: 100 people maximum. Schools must remain open. The Federal Council did not want to give in to pressure from individual cantons, in which parents have already refused to send their children to classes.
“Late on Thursday night, Berset and his team bow down for the last time on a regulation that forces schools to keep them open,” the article says. “At 8:30 pm, the details are being worked out when Berset receives a text message from his friend Christian Levrat.” The SP president asks his colleague from Freiburg if he has seen what is happening in France. “Berset turns on the television and sees that French President Emmanuel Macron is announcing the closure of all schools,” according to the Sunday newspaper. The French Minister of Health Olivier Véran (40) assured him the day before that schools in France would remain open.
The French turned right
Then Berset picks up the phone. He reaches his counterpart Véran. He explains that a new assessment by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control has led to this decision. Children could simply transmit the disease more often than previously known. Closing schools is an appropriate measure.
Berset has the fine tuning of the regulation on keeping schools open. From now on, the opposite should apply. “The decision is ultimately made in ten minutes,” say the authors. Soon after, the lessons in Switzerland, as in almost all parts of the continent, were only held at home. A person involved confirmed this description to VIEW.
Koch reacted late
The book, which will be released next week, also addresses how then-Mr Corona Daniel Koch (65) was warned about Corona in early spring by epidemiologist Marcel Salathé (45) and his Bernese colleague Christian Althaus (41). The much more experienced cook from the Federal Office of Public Health (BAG) reacted late. In hindsight, perhaps too late.
Not just the “lockdown,” but future research will one day show whether faster action by BAG could have saved human lives. But above all, if in the future a way can be found to help a canton like Ticino more quickly and allow it to act independently in an emergency like at the beginning of the year. (pt)
