A Cold Vaccination

Like in many other countries, in Germany, people are not obliged to vaccinate against Covid-19. However, there is a cold obligation* - not laid down in law - that unvaccinated people feel more and more. Daily life is becoming difficult to impossible for them.
*Germany's right-wing AfD called it "A compulsory vaccination entering through the backdoor."

The cold vaccination obligation is driven by the behavior of the vaccinated people, economic pressure on companies with public traffic, and the wish that the whole shit may finally be over (herd immunity).

Meanwhile, the vaccination campaign continues. Around 43 percent, i.e., two out of five Germans, have received their first jab, while 18 percent have already been fully vaccinated, including many particularly vulnerable or exposed fellow citizens.

Here is an old man's privilege. Last Saturday chez Toni's on Münsterplatz.

©ntv

Germany's corona incidence is declining rapidly.

©ntv

In most other European countries, the situation is improving too.

©ntv

Corona incidence related to age: young people, and, in particular, children between the age of 10 to 14, stick out.

Presently, going to the restaurant even for a drink is impossible for persons who don't fulfill one of three conditions. 1. Being fully vaccinated, 2. Having recovered, or 3. Showing the receptionist a negative Corona quick test result not older than 24 hours. In German this is known as the three G rule: geimpft, genesen, getestet.

Last Wednesday, I invited a good friend and my daughter to an asparagus lunch at Oberkirch's on Mūnsterplatz. Our party of three was an interesting combination:

- Red Baron has been fully vaccinated since February 11, counting an additional two weeks from the date of my second jab.

- My recovered daughter tested positive last year on December 9 and again on December 22! Even the health authorities could not explain why she was still Corona positive 13 days after her first test.

- Our friend had a quick test made just before lunch.

When she arrived at the restaurant, it turned out that the test center had used yesterday's form. She had to return where, with many excuses, the center issued her a correct certificate. Lunch started with a slight delay and one additional drink. Crazy.

With an incidence rate as low as 34 per 100,000, why can't the authorities go back to last year's rule?: Outdoor gastronomy is possible with three people from three households, distances observed, but no other strings attached.

The German Hotel and Restaurant Association (DEHOGA) stated, "We expect inspection and testing requirements to be eliminated for outdoor restaurant service. It cannot be that restrictions for indoor retailers are removed, while restaurateurs must make such a huge effort in their beer gardens."

Lagniappe: My daughter's "recovery" is valid for six months, i.e., until June 9 or 22? She will get her second jab on June 2, i.e., she will be regarded as fully vaccinated only on June 16.

Let us hope that receptionists will accept the later date. Otherwise, my daughter will be deprived of any gastronomy for a whole week in June. Corona madness.

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Werner Kieser R.I.P.

©dpa

The founder of Kieser Training, Werner Kieser, died on May 19, 2021, at the age of 80.

His motto was, “Ein starker Rücken kennt keinen Schmerz. (A strong back doesn't know any pain)." With such pithy sayings, the Swiss Kieser became known beyond his country's borders.

Through franchisees, the "back pope" built up a chain with more than 160 fitness studios in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, which he sold in 2017 to his long-time managing director. The word "fitness" always bothered Kieser, claiming, "I offer body hygiene."

Regarding his motto, he asserted, "There is no back problem, only a problem of strength." As Der Spiegel once wrote,  Kieser made many enemies with his simple diagnosis, especially among surgeons, orthopedists, physiotherapists, psychotherapists, mattress manufacturers, and furniture makers.

"Eighty percent of physical restrictions are due to weak muscles," Kieser claimed, and, "Man wächst doch am Widerstand. (You do grow from resistance)," referring to his laborious weight machines.

For his first studio, which he opened in Zurich in 1966, the skilled craftsman had welded the training apparatus together from scrap iron.

Now equipped with increasingly sophisticated training equipment, the studios still function according to Kieser's principle: "With us, you are simply training." It didn't bother him that his studios were "no places of encounter." Kieser confirmed, "Those who come to us want to exercise and then leave."

Another of Kieser's frequently quoted saying was, "Die Alten werden zu Tode geschont. (The old are spared to death). Those who are strong pull themselves more easily." 

Old men/women, rather keep exercising beyond your pain!

Here, Red Baron comes in with his experience. Last November, I lost 4 kilograms following my hip operation due to my inactive stays in the hospital and rehab. So I longed to visit the "production facility for lean mass (muscle and bone)," as Kieser had once described his studios.

However, due to the Corona pandemic, the Kieser facilities were closed and opened in Baden-Württemberg only on March 23. Since then, I have visited Kieser's three times a week. Here is the result:

My scales spit out not only the weight but other data as well. The trend seems clear: Less fat, more muscles, but why does the water content of my body increase? My pump is probably getting old.

Werner Kieser once predicted, "The chain and the idea will outlive me." How true.
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The Infirm People in the Field

Die Siechen im Felde was the title of a talk given by Freiburg's archeologist, Dr. Bertram Jenisch, and anthropologist, Carola Berszin M.A., describing the findings of recent disinterments at the site of the Medieval leprosarium, the Gutleutehaus (good people's house).

©B. Jenisch

This infirmary was located south of the city walls in the fields at a street fork with the road to Basel.

©Amt für Denkmalspflege

The area was built over in the late 19th century. Workmen found a human skeleton when digging for new construction and called the police.

It turned out that the deterred bones originated from the 13th century. The known history of the place is as follows:

1251: First mention of the Freiburg Gutleutehaus (domus pauporum leprosariums de Friburch)

1256: Pope Alexander IV asks the Bishop of Constance* to grant the domus leprosum a chaplain, a campana (bell), and a cimiterium (cemetery).
*Up to the middle of the 19th century, Freiburg belonged to the bishopric of Constance

1268 Albertus Magnus, Lesemeister (lecturer) at Freiburg's Dominican monastery, consecrates the local chapel.

1632 On the occasion of their first siege of Freiburg, Swedish troops burned the site that most likely was not reconstructed. Before the Swedes blew the final attack, the city had the white flag raised on the Snail Tower and bargained an accord (agreed to surrender) on December 29.

Blue: The fortifications Vauban had built around the city
and up the Schlossberg at the end of the 17th century.
Red: The system of trenches (approaches) the besieging French
had dug to approach the city walls. The small circle surrounds the area
of the former Gutleutehaus.
Note: The French had to conquer fortifications
their compatriot had constructed 50 years before. 

1744 Burial place for the Frenchmen killed during the siege and storming of Freiburg.

At the "Siechen in Felde," archeologists dug out skeletons marked by leprosy from the Middle Ages. Also, they found superimposed a mass grave of Frenchmen in an upper layer killed during the siege of Freiburg in 1744. The approaches ran through the former cemetery of the Gutleutehaus and were filled with the corpses of the fallen soldiers. 

           Grave good: a rosary (©B. Jenisch) 

Anthropologists are just at the beginning of their investigation of Medieval bones but have already identified diseases such as tuberculosis, bone infections, bone tumors, inflammation of the middle ear, and syphilitic changes.

From these preliminary findings, it looks as if the French disease was not brought in from the New World via Naples, but was already indigenous in Europe, i.e., history books would have to be rewritten.

How exciting, or did they mix the bones from the Middle Ages with those of 1744?

It all remains suspenseful.

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3G

In 2019 Red Baron blogged about 5G. Am I going back in history? By no means.

Since last Saturday, restaurants have been allowed to open again in Freiburg. Many places were caught unprepared. One of my favorite places, Der Kaiser, opened for seated customers only yesterday.

There were strings attached. First of all, you had to make a reservation. Then all guests must fulfill one of the 3 Gs, i.e., being fully vaccinated, recovered from Covid-19, or providing a certified negative Corona quick test. The latter is free (one per week for a person) but unpleasant.

All papers filled out.
Give your name, birthday, address, and telephone number, and check one of three boxes:
vaccinated, recovered, or a negative Corona quick test not older than 24 hours.

When our party of three arrived at Der Kaiser for lunch, we counted two people vaccinated, and one person recovered. We had to show our Corona credentials at the entrance but still had to fill out a paper confirming our data by signature.

What a difference to last year. Facebook reminded me two days ago of a lunch I had at the Kaiser’s beer garden one year ago. The photo proves that the weather was better 12 months ago.

This time we were sitting inside,
still, how the two photos resemble the food.

A cleared battlefield

The situation in Germany is changing fast. Yesterday I read in the local Badische Zeitung that in our region,   up to ten people from three households (before it was two) may meet in private and public spaces. Fully vaccinated and recovered people do not count towards the total number of people.

So the total number of people on a Wikipedia Stammtisch scheduled for May 24 will depend on the old fully vaccinated guys.

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Render Unto Caesar

While in Germany, vaccination against Corona still is slowed down by the lack of vaccines, the jab rate in the States is declining due to a high percentage of anti-vaxxers.

In one of his recent posts, Jerry Coyne professed atheist, commented on an article by Curtis Chang and Kris Carter in the NYT titled:

Don't they see the Holy Grail? (©NYT)

The reasons for evangelists not taking their jabs are manifold. Before I try to dig into the complex material, here are two salient paragraphs from the original article in the NYT:

"But American evangelicals are historically prone to ambivalence toward dominant secular institutions. In fact, a posture of critical evaluation is built into the fabric of our faith. Evangelicals interpret Jesus' teaching that his followers are in the world but not "of the world" (John 17:16) to mean we should engage with secular institutions with a certain measure of wariness. Some amount of caution is healthy for all communities, not just for evangelicals. No institution is infallible, and critical thinking can be a civic virtue."

"Unfortunately, in recent years, the evangelical approach to engaging with secular institutions has morphed from caution into outright fear and hostility. Three forces have exploited this inherent ambivalence toward secular institutions. First, conservative media has mastered the art of sowing evangelical suspicion of the establishment to increase ratings. Second, politicians — some Christian and some not — have used evangelicals' distrust of so-called elite institutions to gain our votes. Third, conspiracy movements such as QAnon and antivaccine campaigns have targeted evangelicals, conjuring fictional enemies intent on destroying our values and, in the case of the vaccines, our actual bodies. All of these forces shape how large segments of the evangelical community perceive the Covid vaccines."

Professor Coyne tries to beat the evangelists at their own game, "Whatever happened to 'Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's (Ἀπόδοτε οὖν τὰ Καίσαρος Καίσαρι καὶ τὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ τῷ Θεῷ).[Matthew 22:21].' For surely the vaccine is Caesar's!"

According to the Gospel of John, Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd and know my sheep" [John 10:14], to which Red Baron adds, "but they are stubborn and won't get herd immunity."

At present, anti-vaxxers are not yet a problem in Germany. Regarding them, Christian Drosten's* comments are cynical, "those who actively decide against vaccination must know that they are deliberately deciding in favor of natural infection," adding, "I say this without any judgment." 

*Germany's Fauci

In other words, if you don't vaccinate, you let the virus do its work, i.e., life will punish you with a potentially life-threatening infection.

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Be Consistent!

By now, my readers know my discomfort with gendering. In February, I gave you an example of gender madness in Germany:

Studentinnen (female) and Studenten (male) are now not only officially but commonly called Studierende.

That's not all. When I passed the other day the entrance to this very Lutheran Students' Community building, I read the following:

So what is the correct name of the Community?

Let's face it; the use of the present participle and the Binnen-I to make the language gender-equitable are not the only possibilities currently discussed in Germany.

These options are not part of the official orthography, e.g., Genderstern (Student*innen), Gendergap (Student_innnen), Doppelpunkt (Student:innen), and Mediopunkt (Student•innen). Of those, the internal-I, the gender asterisk, and the gender gap are widespread. The Council for German Orthography does not endorse these options but at least discusses them as means to strive for gender-equitable written expressions.

In 2020, the Duden* listed the internal-I as a possible "gender-appropriate language" but insisted its use is "not covered by the official rules."
*Germany's Webster

The Council for German Orthography only admitted, "Since the internal-I has a 'graphostilistic' aspect, it is an element of text design."

There is no end to the discussion. The Greens recommend more gender-neutral terms for official communications. Should one use the asterisk instead of the interior-I to include all genders and gender identities?

The slightly right-wing Verein Deutsche Sprache (German Language Society) bitterly opposed any gendering of the German language and wrote, "In principle, a gender starlet is nothing more than five silly apostrophes* arranged in a circle."

*comparable in English to the grocer's apostrophe

Which now? Red Baron keeps shaking his head.

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The Standard Model

Red Baron loves the Standard Model in physics and has admired it in several blogs.

 

My latest encounter with this beauty was during a lively discourse by David Tong, professor of theoretical physics at Cambridge University, titled "The real building blocks of the Universe." I drew most of the pictures from his talk.

David talked in the same lecture hall where Faraday, in 1828, demonstrated the phenomena of electricity on a piece of furniture still present today.

So here is the nowadays well-known illustration of the composition of matter …

… and here is ...

 

... or as David called it ...

The world is made up of 12 fundamental particles. Stable matter only needs the first row, where two up quarks and one down quark are held together by the strong nuclear force composing the proton; neutrons contain one up quark and two down quarks. Protons, neutrons, and electrons in various combinations form all chemical elements.

Our world is held together by four known forces. These forces correspond to fields where "ripples" in those fields give rise to particles like gravitons, photons, quarks, and intermediate bosons, 

The Higgs boson fills in a gap. Ripples in the Higgs field give particles their mass.

So far, so good, or so far and not so good. Physicists are not satisfied with the present Standard Model, as presented here in a so-called TOE:

In their time, Einstein and Heisenberg tried hard to develop a world formula. Einstein spent the last thirty years of his life formulating a unified field theory, while in 1958, Heisenberg published his Materiegleichung (matter equation). Without the present knowledge, their efforts remained laudable patchwork.

As I mentioned before, the above equation does not allow for the calculation of the masses of particles and has no term for dark masses and energies. So, there must be more physics beyond the Standard Model. However, the search for "new" particles at energies available at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was unsuccessful, but according to the New Physics, they are a must.

I read the following sentence in an article in Nature: Since the Standard Model was first put together in the 1970s, it has passed all tests and survived almost unchanged. But physicists are convinced that it must be incomplete, and some hope that muons will reveal its first failure.

The fact is that the magnetic moment g of the muon is slightly different from 2. In a first approximation, this difference is explained by the Standard Model and can be calculated within this model.

Because the g-factor of the muon may be affected by physics beyond the Standard Model, it has been measured very precisely in the past at CERN and recently independently at the Brookhaven National Laboratory and Fermilab near Chicago.

Red Baron still remembers the g-2 experiment at CERN beginning in the 1970s. At their muon storage ring, Emilio Picasso and his collaborators obtained a magnetic moment, i.e., a (g-2)/2 value for the muon of 0.001 162 ± 0.000 005, which Emilio and his team considered in agreement with the then theoretical value for the muon of 0.001 165.

Progress in technology never stops. Look at the results. 2006, the discrepancy between the now accepted theoretical value of 0.001 165 918 1 and 0.001 165 920 9 for the (g-2)/2 value measured in the E821 experiment at Brookhaven smelled a new physics.

However, in the meantime, an independent measurement at Fermilab lowered the agreed experimental value to 0.001 165 920 6. At the same time, a recent "more refined "calculation by Szabolcs Borsanyi et al. resulted in a number for (g-2)/2 of 0.001 165 919 5.

Considering the uncertainties of both measurement (±0.000 000 000 6) and theoretical calculation (±0.000 000 000 9), do you still believe in physics beyond the Standard Model? 

Or do you like the world on a string around your finger like Ol' Blue Eyes? But that's another story; sorry, I mean theory.

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Oldtimer

... is a so-called false friend. This is what Germans call their vintage cars.

The other day just at the corner on a neighboring street, I saw it parked: a vintage Beetle from 1959. Why do I know the year?

I still remember one of the Volkswagen slogans at that time: Blinker statt Winker, i.e., from August 1, 1960, Volkswagen replaced the traditional VW semaphore turn signals with conventional flashing directional indicator lamps.

The Beetle on the right could have been my car (©VW Oldtimerfreunde)

If you watch the vintage car closely, you notice that a chromium piece covers the slot of the original semaphore. The owner has replaced the turn signal with a flashing directional light integrated into the small red taillight. However, when the rear light is flashing, it is difficult to distinguish between intermittent braking and a change of direction.

 (©VW Oldtimerfreunde)

Subsequently, in 1961, Volkwagen modified the taillight into a two-chamber system: orange indicating a change in direction and bright red when the brakes are in action.

Red Baron bought his first car in December 1960, a brand new red (what else?) Beetle dashing out about 2000 euros.

Here is the rear of Red Baron's 1960 Beetle, proving that the rear bumper of the Freiburg vintage car is not an original part.

The photo was taken in 1962. That year, I worked on my thesis at an institute located in a suburb of Munich. Note that I kept my Hamburg license plates (Hansestadt Hamburg) while residing in Munich.

In the backyard of his lab, Red Baron in a white lab coat is replacing those dangerous taillights. I bought the new casings and refitted them.

Another Volkswagen slogan that impressed me in December 1960 was: Vier PS mehr (Four more hp). On August 1, 1960, VW increased the power of its 1200 ccm air-cooled engine from 30 hp (22 kW) to 34 hp (25 kW). 

My Indian-red Beetle had a Schiebedach (translated as a ragtop, but better described as a folding roof).

Near Primošten, Yugoslavia, on our honeymoon trip. Elisabeth, looking at the photographer, is standing in the car. Sorry, but in the 1960s, most photos taken in Germany were black-and-white. 

Looking for the red color of my Beetle, I found the above car offered for 23,000 euros on eBay. It has the original taillights, bumpers, and folding roof, but the tires are incorrect, and the car's color is only approximate. The red in the photo with the flashing directional indicator lamps shown above comes closer. Indian-red Beetles were only produced in the period 1960/61. 

 There was a third slogan about the Beetle I remember well: Er läuft und läuft und läuft ... (It runs and runs and runs ...). I never had a major breakdown or was stranded with my Beetle in the middle of nowhere. But I also experienced the slogan's spoof: Er säuft und säuft und säuft ... (It heavily drinks and drinks and drinks ...). My Beetle was a boozer.

Every Monday, when I entered my lab in Munich, a gloating colleague had already his slide rule* out, declaring, "My Beetle was a piggy bank again, only 7.6 liters (of gas per 100 km)." This corresponds to a range of 31 miles per gallon, while my car never made it above 22. My colleague had the previous 22 kW engine while I had the famous 3 kW more and the well-known gas-guzzler. 

*There were no pocket calculators in 1961

 The car I drive nowadays is from 2009, with a power of 215 kW and a range of 23 miles per gallon or better, manifesting technical progress in 50 years.

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The Chalice Passed Once

Due to Corona at Freiburg, Kieser gym still drives auf Sicht, i.e., within a sufficient distance or an assured clear vision.

Falling or stabilizing?

When in Freiburg on Saturday, April 24, the corona incidence rate of 103,8 infections per 100,000 people exceeded 100, followed by a value of 102.5 the following day, Red Baron feared that the Bundesnotbremse would come into force and Kieser gym would shut down.

But when on April 26, the incidence rate was only 98.2, the condition of three consecutive days above 100 was not fulfilled. The counter was reset, or the chalice had passed for the first and hopefully last time.

Red Baron is frustrated, for the Bundesnotbremse measures everything by the same yardstick. As I wrote before, Kieser gym is no source of infection. We know by now that the transmission of Covid-19 goes via aerosols with prolonged or intense exposures in ill-ventilated rooms.

At Kieser's gym, distances are kept, masks are worn, and windows are wide open. Every time I exercise, I fear that I will catch a cold instead of the coronavirus. But this feeling is untrue, for the peoples' increased observation of hygiene rules made that seasonal flu-like infections were at a minimum.


There is another topic presently raising tempers in Germany. The government hesitates to issue a decree with the nice, prosaic title in German: "Verordnung zur Regelung von Erleichterungen und Ausnahmen von Schutzmaßnahmen zur Verhinderung der Verbreitung von Covid-19 or short Covid-19-Schutzmaßnahmen-Ausnahmenverordnung – SchAusnahmV (Ordinance on the Regulation of Facilitations and Exemptions from Safeguards to Prevent the Spread of Covid-19, i.e., Covid-19 Safeguards Exemptions Ordinance)."

This Safeguard Ordinance states in glorious detail that vaccinated and recovered persons will be able "to enter stores, visit zoos and botanical gardens, or use the services of hairdressers and chiropodists, e.g., without prior testing."

In addition, contact restrictions are to be relaxed, and exit restrictions will be lifted. However, the obligation to wear a mask in certain places and the distance requirement in public spaces will continue to apply to everyone.

Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht said that she is pleased that the government gives more freedom to recovered and fully vaccinated people liberating them from "far-reaching restrictions on fundamental rights."

Suppose there is no longer any reason for the restrictions, i.e., protection against infection. In that case, Christine affirmed, "Constitutional principles must apply, especially in times of crisis and pandemic."

If parliament (Bundestag) and the Senate (Bundesrat) agree, the Ordinance could come into force next weekend.

N.B. This is my 800th blog.

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