Y’all probably know already that the whole Chinese city Wuhan is under quarantine. It’s understandable because more than three-thousand Chinese have already died from SARS-2. Hundreds of people died in Italy, so Italy put a region of fourteen provinces under quarantine and closed all schools, cinemas, theaters, ski resorts, pools, gyms, and so on. In general all public places. Italy even halted law suits. France closed only some schools and universities. Germany lets schools decide on their own. I heard that in at least one case a girl isn’t allowed to visit school anymore because her mother is Chinese. This sounds rather like racism to me than like a precaution.

Definitely related to SARS-2 are other policies. Germany’s government sent thousands of protective gears to China in February. But now in March has Germany prohibited to export protective gears because Germany’s government understood finally that protective gears are a limited resource, especially since they are produced in China. This led to three different reactions. Those Germans, who aren’t demented yet, learnt that their government is demented. The Chinese admire the Germans’ selflessness, that made them give even their last protective gears for fighting the epidemic in China. It is a culturally distorted perception, although not as vast as your perception of Germany is if you get informed by Hollywood only. The Swiss feel offended, so that there are now diplomatic tensions between Switzerland and Germany. Switzerland and diplomatic tensions in the same sentence surprises you probably. But it’s completely logical at the second look. Switzerland is located in the mountains and has no access to any sea. Switzerland has officially four languages, but speaks predominantly German because core Switzerland had once separated from Austria. So it is natural for Swiss people and Swiss companies to buy things from Germany, even preferring buying from Germany than importing directly. So the German halt of exports endangers the health system in Switzerland. The German health system is already in severe trouble because Germany really gave the last protective gears away. What was kept stored in hospitals is recently stolen in large amounts.

This latter reaction see some Germans as a major cultural difference to China because the Chinese outside of China buy every face mask or other protective gear, which they can get somehow, and send that all to China. Hence empty shelves are reported everywhere, from Germany to Australia. But it is also a culturally distorted perception. The Chinese make quick bucks this way because Chinese hospitals ask indeed that protective gear is sent to them, but they also advertise that their financial means are unlimited. How a hospital’s financial means are unlimited is a big riddle to other countries because more and more hospitals in Germany get closed due to financial reasons and hospitals in Russia are infamous of their empty racks since already the end of the Soviet Union. But the unlimited financial means of Chinese hospitals are also logical because many governments gave huge amounts of money for fighting SARS-2. This money buys away the protective gears in all of the world.

Although Germany is affected less by SARS-2 than other countries, many people feel the same panic. Besides protective gear getting stolen, do new conspiracy theories arise on a daily basis. But people, who count calmly, found that Germany should meanwhile have eight or nine people, who died because of SARS-2, instead of only one, who died in Egypt, so that he could instead also be counted as an Egyptian case death because of SARS-2. The disease is just less dangerous as usually portrayed. Doctors have most recently even found that SARS-2 has an even lower death rate among children. This is on the one hand seen as mysterious, but on the other hand SARS-2 is a lung disease and medical doctors say that if you don’t want to die from a lung disease than quit smoking is much more effective than all protective measures against SARS-2. So the lower death rate among children actually isn’t mysterious because children have healthier lungs because they were exposed less to cigarette smoke than the usual adult passive smoker.

The Chinese invented the Wuhan-shake, a kind of foot-shake instead of a handshake, with the goal of avoiding transferring germs. Whether you should shake hands became an issue in Germany instead because politicians say since many years that handshakes are an important part of German culture and you have to get used to it if you live in Germany, while medical doctors say, also in Germany and since many more years, that handshakes should be avoided because they are a way to transfer germs. What medical doctors say is now suddenly perceived as a valid argument.