Coronoia - Drostens fascistoid fantasies from 1984

In his Coronoia update of 03.04.2020, Christian Drosten deals with a British concept study for a smartphone app, which is not coincidentally based on Chinese models... .

As a reminder: already the Federal Minister of Authorization, Mr. Spahn, had planned to tighten the Infection Protection Act by allowing the state to use location and movement data of smartphone users to fight the pandemic - these plans were put on hold after the horrified outcry of all German data protection commissioners and the objection of the Federal Minister of Justice (for the time being...).

But even that is not enough for Drosten: "He is fascinated by the thought that such an app, especially if many people would participate, would give you an instrument that would allow you to achieve a completely different level of control finesse" (Podcast from 03.04.2020).

He talks about the "playing possibilities" one would have: At a certain point the app could also be sharpened:

At a certain point, the app could also be made sharper: "At a time when there is a wave of infection, we could bring even more speed into the whole system by saying we're going to leave out this test story. We are now reprogramming this app. If I check this box and I have symptoms, the app will not tell me: "Okay, I've already signed you up for testing at the lab", but the app will say: "Okay, we'll consider you positive now". [...] Anything symptomatic is defined as positive from now on, without testing. This is of course an interventional measure, so that this criterion is tightened. Then of course, and this is an interesting consequence, all contacts of this infected person in the last few days are defined as real contacts. There is no requirement that first the laboratory test must be positive and then this app goes to all contacts and says: "Beware of symptoms", but this happens immediately. Here too, you can make the criterion more stringent for these contacts: If they would then enter "Now I've got symptoms" (i.e.: "I've been warned and now I've got symptoms"), the app would not say "Please go to the lab test" anymore. Instead, the app would also say: "We must now consider you positive and you must go into home quarantine". [...] Basically, the Health Department's job is being delegated in part to this app."

And the authors of the British study give an irritating answer to the question of the voluntariness of the app: of course the app had to be voluntary, as in China, where the app was "not compulsory but was required to move between quarters and into public spaces and public transport". A deeply disturbing understanding of "not compulsory" for authors of a democratic society .

The fact that the de facto exclusive advisor of the German government in the discussion about the use of apps in the pandemic does not raise his voice unmistakably warning here and takes up the cudgels for the existing data-saving and human rights respecting alternative, but even beyond the Chinese-inspired British model fantasized about fascistoid surveillance and isolation strategies in the hands of artificial intelligence and algorithms, Christian Drosten once again disqualifies as an advisor to a democratically legitimized government whose actions must be based on the free democratic basic order.

Here, to use the term Heribert Prantels once again, a virolocracy is being talked about - and this in a pre-fascist Orwellian form...

Translated Version - Original here