Forensic Pathologist: No One in Hamburg Has Died of COVID-19 Alone
Fri 5:32 am +01:00, 15 May 2020
In the following clip from a German TV news show, a professor of forensic medicine at a university in Hamburg explains why the fear and hysteria about the Wuhan Coronavirus is significantly overblown.
Many thanks to MissPiggy for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:
Video transcript:
| 00:00 | Now we’ll speak with someone who caused quite a stir in the media over the last few weeks. | |
| 00:07 | Professor Klaus Püschel is the head of forensic medicine at the University Hospital | |
| 00:12 | Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE). He and his colleague are autopsying | |
| 00:15 | all those who died of COVID-19 in Hamburg. | |
| 00:18 | In his opinion, the fear of the virus is exaggerated. COVID-19 is a comparatively harmless disease. | |
| 00:25 | He’s my guest now in the studio. A very warm welcome to you, Professor Püschel. Just to clarify, | |
| 00:30 | you think that Corona is affecting us and society | |
| 00:34 | in a completely inappropriate and exaggerated way. Is that right? | |
| 00:39 | I stand by that. To make it clear, I’ll say that I think | |
| 00:45 | it’s completely exaggerated, for example when this virus is | |
| 00:52 | referred to as a KILLER VIRUS. When people are very afraid of it. | |
| 00:57 | I think it’s really completely inappropriate when | |
| 01:01 | a president tells his people that we are at war, or | |
| 01:04 | when the German chancellor compares the situation with the last world war. | |
| 01:10 | We have a virus here that we already know in principle. | |
| 01:16 | However, this is new version which came to us as a pandemic, | |
| 01:23 | so we have to react to it in a very special way. | |
| 01:27 | It’s the fear that always eats souls. The individual — you and I — | |
| 01:32 | we don’t have to be particularly afraid. There are many other dangers | |
| 01:36 | occurring in life that affect us far more. | |
| 01:40 | Ten days ago in an interview with a major newspaper, | |
| 01:44 | you said that you hadn’t had a single case of COVID-19 | |
| 01:48 | on your dissection table. Not one had died from the illness COVID-19 alone | |
| 01:52 | without another pre-existing condition. | |
| 01:56 | Is that still the case? —Yes. That remains the case. All [COVID-19] deaths for this region, | |
| 02:03 | which have now passed 100, have been autopsied, and each one had serious pre-existing diseases. | |
| 02:12 | They were between 50 and 100 years old. The average age is 80 years old. | |
| 02:18 | This indicates clearly that these are people who aren’t | |
| 02:21 | in good general condition. Here I must add that they all had | |
| 02:25 | at least one special or rather even several diseases. | |
| 02:30 | Cardiovascular disease, heart attack, enlarged heart, | |
| 02:35 | constriction of the coronary arteries, calcification of the arteries, | |
| 02:38 | chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. | |
| 02:41 | Also liver disease, cirrhosis, kidney insufficiency, | |
| 02:45 | metabolic diseases such as diabetes mellitus, dementia, and | |
| 02:50 | in such conditions the immune system is weakened and does not react adequately. | |
| 02:58 | What do you find in the victims of COVID-19 when you open them? | |
| 03:02 | The many pre-existing diseases that I’ve spoken of. | |
| 03:06 | We regularly find respiratory infections and pneumonia, | |
| 03:11 | and with the pneumonia come a variety of other complications. | |
| 03:16 | On the one hand the virus-related cellular changes, | |
| 03:21 | which are very typical, but also accompanying infections, | |
| 03:27 | so-called bacterial super-infections, and nosocomial infections. | |
| 03:31 | What is that? —These are diseases that | |
| 03:34 | you only get when you are in hospital or undergoing medical treatment, | |
| 03:38 | due to its not being sterile everywhere. | |
| 03:41 | The hygienic conditions in our country are comparatively good, | |
| 03:44 | so it cannot be compared to the situation | |
| 03:47 | in other countries. We think that is important in the cases of pneumonia. I always point out | |
| 03:52 | that relatively often pulmonary embolisms are due to thrombosis, | |
| 03:57 | which is why I always say, please stay active and keep moving. | |
| 04:02 | Please stay active and keep moving. Thank you very much for your assessments and your visit, | |
| 04:06 | and your explanation, Professor Püschel from the Forensic Medicine Department | |
| 04:09 | at the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE). |
ONE THOUGHT ON “FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: NO ONE IN HAMBURG HAS DIED OF COVID-19 ALONE”