In Gangelt, North Rhine-Westphalia, the first massive corona outbreak in Germany will occur in 2020. Three years later, another big carnival session takes place there. Guest of honor is the virologist Hendrick Streeck, for whom the celebration also has a high symbolic value.
The virologist Hendrik Streeck took part in the big cap meeting in Gangelt – the carnival celebration that turned out to be the first corona superspreader event in Germany in 2020. “I was very happy to have been invited,” said Streeck. “For me it’s a bit of an end to the pandemic. It’s not completely carefree, but I think it’s also important to draw a line.”
The Bonn scientist, disguised as a “Love captain” in a white uniform, was accompanied by his husband Paul Zubeil and Heinsberg district administrator Stephan Pusch, who had become known nationwide for his crisis management in the Corona crisis. “It’s already closing a circle somewhere today,” said Pusch. “That’s life: Joy and sorrow go hand in hand.” For him, the celebration means the “start of a new normality”. People would now celebrate carefree again, and “that’s a good thing.”
Streeck took the cap meeting of February 15, 2020 as an opportunity for the first major field study on Corona, the “Heinsberg Study”. In 2021 he published another study which found that poor ventilation had promoted the spread of the virus at the meeting. Almost half of the approximately 450 participants had been infected with the virus at the time. As a result, the first major corona outbreak in Germany occurred in the Heinsberg district in North Rhine-Westphalia on the border with the Netherlands.
