Looking Back at Germany, the Coronavirus and February

There are seven basic events in February worth discussing:

1.  Chatter in late January came up about German students 'stuck' in China, along with various German businessmen.  They needed to be 'rescued', because all airlines were shutting down traffic. 

So on 1 February, the Health Minister (Spahn) came back to the general public and said that Germans stuck in China would be taken out (details to be worked out), and that none of them would leave if they were sick with the virus.  While he said this.....it wasn't really true. 

The Bundeswehr operates a Airbus medical ambulance, and this was to be used for the flight back to Germany. 

In this speech on 1 January, the key thing said.....'you people can't exclude or condemn those Germans with the virus'.  This is Spahn saying it....not the Chancellor. 

2.  Roughly two weeks would pass, and Spahn near appears at a EU meeting (all Health Ministers), and says travel restrictions need to be done with China.  It might be worth noting....virtually all of European airlines had halted them at this point, so it's curious who he meant this restriction to be upon.  The topic of temperature monitoring at airports came up, and the entire group downplayed it.  It basically would open up another can of worms. 

3.  It is in mid-Feb that the Lombardy, Italy surge in Corona starts up.  It won't really affect Germany for another two weeks. 

4.  The first cancellation of an event occurs (Light and Building Fair in Frankfurt was supposed to happen on 24 Feb).  Moved to September.  This is the first of many cancellations. 

5.  26 Feb is the day where multiple cases of Corona occur in NRW, and it now becomes a hot-spot.

6.  Last week of Feb, a discussion starts up in Berlin over closing the border with Italy.  Long debate.  Final decision?  No decision. 

Same time period, Lufthansa cuts Europe flights by one-quarter.  They didn't need encouragement.  Passengers are dumping reservations, and the planes are thin on passengers. 

New rules come up on air/sea travel, meaning passengers from Italy, Japan, South Korea, China and Iran have to report their condition or health ahead of time.  Same thing starts up with trains approaching the German border.  Police are now ordered to check on passengers entering country. 

7.  Around this last week of February, the supermarkets in Germany now report some shortages (toilet paper, soup, etc).  Panic buying has started up.  Various government officials are urging calm.  If you wanted a six-pack of toilet-paper....it's rough. 

Oddly around this point, shortages in certain medications gets noticed (this is where the public finds out that the bulk of all drugs are made in China) and disinfectant becomes hard to come by (even for a hospital).

The public figure for Germany for the entire month?  The Health Minister....Spahn.  No one can argue....he's the face and carrying the bulk of trust for the government.