Corona news in the ticker: CSU rejects political processing of the Corona measures
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WHO: Agreement on new terminology for respiratory pathogens such as Corona
7:04 p.m.: After serious confusion at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) has revised its terminology for airborne pathogens. After more than two years of consultations, it was agreed to designate all airborne pathogens as IPR, regardless of their size, the WHO announced on Thursday in Geneva. The abbreviation stands for “infectious respiratory particles”.
At the beginning of the corona pandemic, experts argued about whether the Sars-CoV-2 pathogen was transmitted via droplets or so-called aerosols in the air. In the first months of the pandemic at the beginning of 2020, the WHO and other experts assumed that the virus was transmitted via droplets that infected people spread when they coughed and sneezed.
As a component of such droplets, the pathogen would not have hung in the air we breathed, but would have sunk onto surfaces. The experts’ advice at the time was to wash your hands as often and thoroughly as possible.
Ultimately, however, most experts came to the conclusion that the coronavirus spreads more easily through the air in the form of aerosols, so other precautionary measures such as regular ventilation and wearing breathing masks were necessary for prevention.
In the course of the research debates, it became clear that there was no common understanding and no uniform terminology for airborne pathogens in the various scientific disciplines. The WHO has now concluded that this has led to difficulties “in public communication and in efforts to contain the pathogen”.
The new technical term IRP now refers to both the coronavirus and pathogens of other respiratory diseases such as tuberculosis and flu. However, a distinction is still made between two types. Through airborne transmission, IPR become airborne and inhaled by others. In the second type, the pathogen from an infected person ends up directly in the mouth, nose or eyes of another person and infects them in this way.
A broad agreement on the new terminology should simplify interdisciplinary cooperation to combat the pathogens, said WHO chief scientist Jeremy Farrar in Geneva. After all, it is “difficult to make scientific progress until we all agree on the terminology.” According to Farrar, there is still a long way to go from this common starting point to agreeing on measures to prevent infections in hospitals, schools or transport.
Sales in the hospitality industry remain well below expectationsCorona-Level
Thursday, April 18, 8:54 a.m.: The hospitality industry in Germany is still in the shadow of the Corona crisis. In February, sales increased by 0.5 percent (in real terms) compared to the previous month, adjusted for price increases, and by 1.2 percent in nominal terms. Compared to January 2019, i.e. before the outbreak of the pandemic, there was a real drop in sales of 14 percent, as the Federal Statistical Office announced on Thursday in Wiesbaden.
In the case of accommodation providers, income fell by 1.6 percent in real terms in February compared to January 2024. Compared to February 2023, sales fell by 0.9 percent. Compared to pre-Corona levels, hotels, guesthouses and the like recorded a decline of 9.5 percent.
In real terms, sales in the catering industry rose by 0.6 percent compared to the previous month of January and fell by 1.2 percent compared to the same month last year. Compared to February 2019, revenues were still 15.7 percent lower.
With the reintroduction of the regular VAT rate of 19 percent for food in restaurants since January 1, 2024, the costs for customers are generally increasing – many businesses pass the higher tax on to the guests. Industry observers are therefore expecting more bankruptcies in the catering industry this year. During the Corona pandemic, the federal government temporarily supported the hospitality industry with a reduced VAT rate. Despite protests from the industry, it expired at the turn of the year.
State parliament discusses dealing with the Corona– Politics
Wednesday, April 17, 3:29 p.m.: Large parts of the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament do not consider a study commission at the state level to examine Corona policy to be expedient. Such a committee would make more sense at the federal level, said the Green Party’s health expert, Josef Winkler, on Wednesday in Mainz.
The CDU health politician Christoph Gensch emphasized that key political decisions during the pandemic had been made at the federal level. In view of the costs and time required, a new study commission in the country makes little sense.
Helge Schwab, a member of the Free Voters, who brought the issue into the current debate in the plenary session, said that a certain amount of processing was also needed at the state level. His parliamentary group, the CDU and the traffic light coalition had recently signaled that they wanted to launch a joint initiative for an expert hearing on the topic in the Health Committee.
The AfD parliamentary group explicitly calls for a study commission. Group leader Jan Bollinger said in the plenary session that there was still a lack of insight into self-criticism. It is not enough to deal with the issue in the health committee “at a pig’s gallop”.
CSU rejects political reappraisal Corona-measures
Tuesday, June 9th, 5:12 p.m.: The Bavarian state government does not see politics as taking the lead when it comes to reviewing the former Corona measures, but rather science. Many of those who are now calling for a political reappraisal would have made their judgment long ago, said State Chancellor Florian Herrmann (CSU) at a current hour in the Bavarian state parliament on Tuesday. But only without political instrumentalization can one learn for the future – that is why it is primarily a matter for science to deal with a pandemic.
After the publication of minutes from the crisis team of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) from the early days of the pandemic, the AfD applied for the current hour. According to the AfD, the partially blacked out documents from the period from January 2020 to April 2021 are evidence of the ineffectiveness of individual corona measures. The opposition party therefore called for the establishment of an investigative committee in the state parliament on Tuesday. The AfD parliamentary group leader Katrin Ebner-Steiner spoke in parliament of an “unjust regime” that the state government had built during the corona pandemic.
The CSU and Free Voters objected. The AfD is tearing passages from the minutes out of context and using them for their arguments. “You are shamelessly exploiting a global health crisis,” accused Susann Enders (Free Voters) of the AfD parliamentary group.
The SPD and the Greens also criticize the AfD’s presentation. At the same time, the two opposition factions spoke out in favor of further processing. The SPD demanded that Bavarian protocols and documents from the cabinet, the Ministry of Health and the State Office of Public Health be published. Toni Schuberl (Greens) sharply criticized the government and especially Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU): The Free State was led by an “egocentric politician who wanted to become chancellor”.
You can read older news about the corona pandemic on the next pages.
Corona era: What you should know
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