To an increasing extent, the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 dominates human life in Europe. There is a lot of speculation about the medical aspects, but the concretely foreseeable social consequences are falling behind more and more, despite the fact that competent scientists, such as the German top-virologist Prof. Christian Drosten from the Charité, are urging to base political decisions on an interdisciplinary scientific discussion ^[1]:

Now is the time when politics absolutely needs a few days of rest to get advice. Not always from the same people, but also from other disciplines. And it is imperative that we now allow policymakers to be calm about such important decisions as school closures. It is harmful now when political journalists say that “we are doing what we always do. That is, we take a quote from this expert, play it to the public and create an urgency for politicians to address this mood that is created in the people, by making decisions”. I think, at this point it is bad for politicians to simply decide quickly and then have to correct the course because the decisions were too grave. Political journalists should now try to work a bit more like science journalists – with more background and with a little more calm.

So let’s take the time to look at the new coronavirus from different angles. Continue reading →