5 Years of Covid in Germany: 'Not everything was bad', according to Der Spiegel's Claus Hecking

Let's check out a new editorial with a journo™ calling for 'forgiveness' over 'coming to terms', if only because most 'showed solidarity' and 'saved lives' (but not you, antivaxxer rabble)

Albeit this week’s postings are quite ‘Covid-heavy’, thematically speaking, we cannot leave out one of the most asinine piece put out by German legacy media (apologies to donkeys).

Hence, I’ll provide, without much further ado in this introduction, a piece by Claus Hecking, editor and journo™ at Der Spiegel, one of Germany’s premier mouthpieces of whatever BS is done by whoever is in power in Berlin. Yes, Der Spiegel once used to be a more muck-raking outlet, but the 1970s are definitely past, if not too long ago, to convey anything but contempt and pity for the amazing delusions passing for ‘conventional wisdom™’ and ‘intrepid journalism™’ in present-day Germany.

Also, don’t miss Claus Hecking’s personal website, which features the header ‘Journalist: Behind the Headlines’ superimposed on a picture where he stands in the background with St Gretha of Climate Doom in the middle. I suppose irony isn’t his strong suit.

As always, translation, emphases, and [snark] mine. As are the sighs.

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Over at BlueSky, Claus Hecking introduced his editorial as follows:

5 years ago #Corona started in Germany. Not everything was bad. Most of us pulled together in solidarity, showed consideration for the weakest—and saved lives.

We should be proud of that. And forgive each other.

Note two things: first, I write this around 6 a.m. (local time) on 30 Jan. 2025, and Mr. Hecking’s posting on BlueSky garnered two (!) ‘likes’. (I’m happy to report that some sheep-themed pictures my ram posts on BlueSky garner more interaction, if you can believe it)

Second, while I’m unsure Mr. Hecking had much, if anything, to do with the choice of the stock photo adorning his editorial, keep it in mind—and remember the photograph when you read the first paragraph.

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Covid Accounting: It’s Time to Forgive Each Other

A Der Spiegel editorial by Claus Hecking, 27 Jan. 2025 [source; archived]

Five years ago, the first case of Sars-Cov-2 was detected in Germany. What went right and what went wrong in those dramatic years—and why we can be proud of ourselves.

The hunt for the children was a terrible moment in the coronavirus era [I don’t know if he has children (I doubt it), and do remember the photograph above]. Two police officers sped across the green spaces of a Hamburg park in their car. A group of schoolchildren who had met outside in the park during the second lockdown ran away from them. The scene symbolised the exceptional situation at the time—and how quickly excessive demands and uncertainty led to some strange decisions [I’m so glad that none of you journos™ had anything at-all to do with this kind of mass hysteria…].

The most terrible moment for hundreds of thousands of other people in Germany was much more cruel and drastic. They learnt of the death of their beloved mothers, fathers, partners, siblings, daughters, sons and friends. At least 186,000 people have died from or with the coronavirus in the past five years, many alone and agonisingly [to put this into perspective: while certainly very tragic, this is some 35-40K per year—and in any given year 2000-19, according to Statista, about 900K-1m people died in Germany annually]

186,000 deaths so far. Who would have expected this on 27 January 2020, when the first German coronavirus case became known five years ago?

An employee of automotive supplier Webasto had been infected by a colleague from China [strange that the contemporaneous outbreak of Covid in Qom, Iran, has been virtually completely memory-holed (see Wikipedia, though, and keep Iran in mind for a moment)]. Then it went in quick succession: infections, carnival, Heinsberg, Ischgl. Drosten, Spahn, Wieler, Streeck. Deaths, contact restrictions, lockdown, toilet paper, hoarding, compulsory masking. Beta, gamma, delta, omicron. Testing, vaccination, Biontech, AstraZeneca, 2G, 3G. A time full of political and private challenges—between fear and hope, a state of emergency and coping with everyday life [I found the best way of dealing with this tirade would be quietly humming Billy Joel’s ‘We didn’t start the fire’].

In spring 2023, the WHO declared the pandemic over—but its consequences remain tangible. The virus and measures have deeply divided society. Populist parties such as the AfD are still using the anger of that time for their own purposes [as if you, Mr. Hecking, and your ilk, as well as the Covid tyrants, wouldn’t sink that low, eh?]. Wiebke Muhsal, an AfD member of the Thuringian state parliament, recently even called for penalties for alleged ‘perpetrators’ [hear, hear; I second that motion, by the way].

Five years after the outbreak of the pandemic, only one truly momentous wrong decision remains: the extremely long school closures [remember, they were never supported by anything or anyone other than ‘the Science™’—data is lacking to this day: wasn’t this a colossal blunder that should be evaluated in court?]

Five years after the outbreak in Germany, it is important to take a realistic look at the measures taken at the time. Many decisions were made correctly, mistakes were mostly not intentional, but were made under immense pressure—it was also uncharted territory for those responsible. A look back shows this [you can’t be serious: the RKI director has admitted, under oath in a court of law, that they ‘take orders’ from politicos™].

First things first: our healthcare system has not collapsed. At no time did the country’s intensive care units run out of beds. Horror scenes like the one in Bergamo where military lorries transported dozens of corpses to crematoria [this is likely fake news as a local Covid commission in Nov. 2024. discussed that there was but one coffin per truck (source)]

The excess mortality rate in Germany was rather low by international standards—lower than in Italy, Austria or Poland, for example, but higher than in Sweden, which did not impose lockdowns [oopsie; also, remember Iran? Iran has about the same no. of inhabitants as Germany (c. 85m) and, reported 146K deaths (the Economist estimated in excess of 270K), according to Wikipedia: you be the judge (I’m not implying that you should trust Wikipedia, but it’s a helpful shorthand for what passes for ‘official™’ news].

Unlike in the USA [could’ve picked literally 190+ other countries, but since there’s apparently a purpose™ to this editorial, of course the theme is ‘we’re ze good Germans], for example, there were no mass lay-offs: millions of employees were able to keep their jobs thanks to the short-time working arrangements [orig. Kurzarbeit, which means that employees would be furloughed while the gov’t paid 60-80% of their salary—this is as close to a real-world, natural experiment of a society-wide Universal Basic Income, and it worked so well that many Western European countries are now de facto bankrupt as doing so has cost so much money, to say nothing about rampant inflation].

Many a death could have been avoided if more people had been vaccinated [note that Mr. Hecking is, obviously, a diehard pro-modRNA poison/death juice junkie who still (!)—I mean, it’s late Jan. 2025 (!!)—hectoring those who refused to bow to that kind of pressure: what an asshole]. Initially there were shortages, but after a few months enough vaccine was available for everyone. Nevertheless, millions remained unvaccinated and suffered disproportionately severe cases [of course there’s no data, reference, or anything offered here, which may be fitting for a personal opinion, but do keep in mind that this is but an unsubstantiated claim, however much in line with the UN/WHO/Club of Rome/WEF/globalist oligarchic cabal it may be].

There was vaccine damage: by spring 2023, the Paul Ehrlich Institute had recorded a total of 3,315 suspected cases of deaths following a coronavirus vaccination. However, according to the institute, only 127 of these deaths were related to this vaccination [as I keep reminding everyone: remember that the modRNA poison/death juice was initially hailed as ‘almost 100% effective’ at ‘preventing transmission’, all of which was: fake, but for whatever reason, Mr. Hecking—whose brain may very well have been addled by these poison/death juices—repeats this false claim]. Every single one is tragic—but according to the WHO, vaccinations have saved 1.4 million lives in Europe [again, much like the preceding paragraph, there’s no source cited, so here goes: WHO Europe press release (dated 16 Jan. 2024), which offers no link to the underlying ‘study’—actually a pre-print (dated 17 Jan. 2024)—that opens as follows: ‘Vaccination against covid-19 has reduced deaths in Europe by at least 57% and saved at least 1.4 million lives, the World Health Organization has estimated.’—I have yet to see the peer-reviewed published version].

The German economy has not collapsed either [it’s about to do so due to the Nord Stream bombing]—although at times it felt like half the country was at a standstill. Companies such as hotels were kept afloat by the state with subsidies, loans, and guarantees. Unlike in the USA, for example, there were no mass redundancies; millions of employees were able to keep their jobs thanks to the short-time working allowance. It was also right to rescue the reeling Lufthansa with taxpayers' money. The federal government earned over 700 million euros when it resold its shares [apart from going deeper into debt, this also means that the state’s share of GDP went up considerably: the neoliberal, new public management road to socialism, if you will, which, incidentally, Mr. Hecking apparently likes a lot (his social media profiles feature a EU flag next to his name)]

It was right to keep adapting the measures.

The virus has changed constantly—as has knowledge about it [I thought ‘the Science™’ is settled…]. It was therefore right to keep adapting the measures, for example with masks. The mask requirement from spring 2020 is likely to have prevented many infections and serious illnesses [public service reminder: masks don’t work, social distancing was invented by the likes of Tony Fauci and never had any scientific and/or empirically proven basis; moreover, remember that Mr. Hecking writes these lines in late Jan. 2025].

The overpriced purchase of masks with high commissions for CDU politicians and CSU-affiliated intermediaries was a scandal—punishable by fines, loss of office, and imprisonment [nevermind the 35b purchase arrangements by EU Commission president Von der Leyen who merely texted Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, which, employing this kind of ‘logic™’, should be ‘punishable’ in the same vein, isn’t it?]. On the other hand, the excessive orders [of PPE] placed by the health ministers Jens Spahn and Karl Lauterbach were not a scandal. Who could have foreseen the actual need? Too few masks or vaccines would have been far worse [can you believe this? I mean, all that’s so very, very wrong with legacy media in one single piece…]

That doesn’t change the fact that some [sic] mandates seem absurd in retrospect: in Munich, police took a man into custody who was sitting on a park bench. In Düsseldorf, bureaucrats created a so-called ‘no-dwell zone’ [orig. Verweilverbotszone] along the banks of the Rhine [I’ll resist the temptation to add something—really: anything—here].

In Hamburg, law enforcement officers caught joggers running around the Alster without a mask and threatened them with fines—and chased schoolchildren through the park. Although scientists had long since discovered that the risk of infection was much lower outside [and, apparently, Mr. Hecking didn’t push very hard, if at-all, against these abuses].

But five years after the outbreak of the pandemic, apart from all the suffering for the relatives, there is only one truly momentous mistake: the extremely long school closures [see, everything was fine and dandy]. Young people are still suffering from after-effects such as educational gaps, isolation and, mental health problems. Those responsible were initially afraid that the schools would become infection hotspots.

And so the judgement should be conciliatory [should it be?]. Most of us showed solidarity [translation: but you shitty antivaxxers and conspiracy loons didn’t]—no matter how uncomfortable the measures were. We have probably saved many a life in the process. We should be proud of that.

‘We will have to forgive each other a lot’, [former CDU Health Minister Jens] Spahn predicted [sic] when things got underway. Five years on, it’s time to forgive each other. To learn from the mistakes of this pandemic in order to be better prepared for the next one. It’s bound to come, sooner or later.

How terrible it will be then also depends on all of us.

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Bottom Lines

I endured this piece of crap, and you should know about it, too. Not out of malice, but as a kind of window into the inner workings of the establishmentarian mind.

Isn’t it marvellous?

I mean, the way Mr. Hecking downplays everything related to vaccine adverse reactions (which the powers-that-be originally denied). Do note that the link he provides (click here) leads to a Paul Ehrlich Institute bulletin dated 31 March 2023. Since there didn’t happen anything since then, I suppose there’s nothing else to talk about, eh? Let’s mention, for completeness’ sake, that Health Minister Karl Lauterbach once called the modRNA poison/death juices ‘without side effects’ [nebenwirkungsfrei] in Aug. 2021.

So, since there was literally nothing but the school closures to be concerned about, that is, according to Mr. Hecking, virtually all is well in his eternally spotless mind. How great that he’s not a young child or teen whose life was quite certainly massively impacted, if not wrecked.

Let’s all give him a pat on the back, shall we?

I’m so sick of these people, hence the following question to you: do you still hold ‘a grudge™’ against the Branch Covidians? I mean, since virtually everyone collaborated with the New Normal™, how do you treat new acquaintances?

(I never ask them what they did or what they thought, but if the topic comes up, I don’t hold back.)