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Without the corona pandemic, Dieter Thomas Kuhn would have been touring the republic with his band eagerly in Advent, the usual Christmas songs and pop musicians in their luggage.

Instead, the 55-year-old singer from Tübingen has been sitting almost every day in wind and weather on the market square of his hometown in a pavilion of the German Red Cross (DRK) since the end of November.

As a volunteer test helper, he handled a beer set with registration slips, evaluated lists - and played the "man for the announcement" for the negative corona test results.

Out of 100 people tested, there were an average of 96 to 98 people in Tübingen who received good news from Kuhn and other volunteers.

The rest, at least two to four percent, were "fished out" as positive, according to the experience of the emergency doctor and local DRK President Lisa Federle.

Advertising for Corona rapid tests instead of a tour: Pop singer Dieter Thomas Kuhn is swept off at the Corona rapid test station on Rathausplatz

Source: pa / dpa / Tom Weller

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The 59-year-old invented the "Tübinger Weg", which has meanwhile become famous nationwide, with free quick tests in old people's homes and on the street;

early on she organized tests - at a net price of less than five euros - and organized volunteers.

She raised funds for the financing, and through a lot of persistence, Federle even managed to get her campaign “Silent Night, Lonely Night?

It doesn't have to be! ”Was extended to all of Baden-Württemberg for two days before Christmas.

In more than 120 cities, people who wanted to celebrate with older or vulnerable relatives could have themselves tested free of charge.

According to the Red Cross, the results were gratifying: only around half a percent of those tested carried the virus.

In Tübingen, however, where tests have been carried out daily since November 26, the numbers were higher.

“On December 25, for example, we got five positive results in 295 tests,” says Federle.

Between two and four percent, that was the average in the past few weeks.

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"With 200 tests a day, we have eight people who simply do not visit relatives and cannot infect anyone," says Federle.

Then eight chains of infection are broken - and that usually by people who are completely surprised by their infection: "Most of them fall from the clouds."

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However, Federle is now worried that the end of the Christmas season could reduce the protective efforts.

“90 percent of senior citizens do not live in a home, but at home.

They still want to be in contact after the New Year, but they are not protected at all. "

Tübingen therefore wants to continue with its rapid test strategy until the vaccinations bring a turning point, i.e. at least another four or five months.

"We can't lock old people away for so long."

Your goal: rapid tests anywhere and free of charge

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Federle does not understand that there is no large, nationwide test strategy.

When she placed her bulk orders for rapid tests in October, she partly had to do so at her own risk.

Only then did she collect money from the mayors in the district.

Now she sees an urgent need for the federal government, which should offer free rapid tests everywhere.

“For visits to grandparents, but also for anyone who would like to have a coffee with the neighbor who is doing the shopping.” Rapid tests only offer protection of 95 percent.

"But 95 percent are better than nothing."

The doctor started testing in the old people's homes in the spring.

On the very first station she examined, 17 people were positive, initially without symptoms.

However, some of them later died.

Then came the lockdown for the homes, no one was allowed in, not even physiotherapists who urgently needed to take care of stroke patients.

The sick couldn't get out of wheelchairs, and many old people became depressed.

She has seen lonely patients who simply stopped eating and no longer wanted to live without their relatives.

Even then, Federle thought about rapid tests because she saw them as the only chance to offer a certain level of security without a tough lockdown in homes.

In April, the Tübingen district was one of the first in Germany to have tests carried out across the board in old people's and nursing homes.

In May, Tübingen then organized a special protection program with a senior shopping window, inexpensive single trips in a shared taxi and free FFP2 masks from the city.

In September, free rapid tests were introduced in homes for staff and residents, in October they were available for visitors, and since the end of November a specially converted test mobile by Lisa Federle has been in use five days a week in marketplaces or parking lots.

"That means there are no more restrictions"

Chancellery Minister Helge Braun, who is also a doctor, vaccinated employees of the Giessen University Clinic against the corona virus.

The pandemic will not end until a large part of the population has been vaccinated, warns Braun.

Source: WORLD

As early as 2015, the mother of four quickly converted a minibus into a mobile doctor's practice, at that time to treat refugees free of charge.

Then the bus was used to help the homeless, now it's the turn of the corona rapid tests.

"I would be happy if the federal government also adopted the example."

"If I keep arguing, the patient may be dead"

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The fact that Dieter Thomas Kuhn, Tübingen's “singing Föhn wave”, is now sitting at the test stand is just one of many examples of the doctor's persuasiveness and resourcefulness.

When the two met more than 25 years ago, Federle was still studying medicine and earning her living in a pub, the trained masseur and medical lifeguard was just making a name for himself as a singer.

Later, as an emergency doctor, Federle treated all the teenagers at concerts who went down on their knees from enthusiasm.

Now Federle asked her friend for help because she wanted a poster for the quick test campaign.

The bard not only provided the motive;

he and his bandmates also took part as a helper on the test stand, because concerts are currently taboo anyway.

Like the entire team of 20, his work is voluntary, nobody earns a cent from it.

Together in the fight against Corona: Kuhn and Federle

Source: pa / dpa / Tom Weller

The patronage of the medical mobile itself, with which the 59-year-old is currently touring the region to set up mobile corona test stations, has been taken over by her long-time friend Jan Josef Liefers, the Münster-based “Tatort” forensic specialist Professor Boerne.

Five years ago, when Federle drove the same minibus from refugee home to refugee home to offer mobile consultation hours, it was Til Schweiger who made a substantial donation when nobody in Tübingen wanted to finance the 70,000 euros for the renovation.

Federle, a former CDU candidate for the state parliament who scraped past a parliamentary seat with just 21 votes in 2011, knows politicians and company bosses, artists and creative people.

And she doesn't give up when she's up to something.

Much earlier than many others in politics and medicine, Federle guessed what problem the world was facing.

“At the time, my daughter was living in Hong Kong, and I was very concerned about what was happening in China,” said Federle.

She was finally pricked up when the 34-year-old doctor died of Covid-19, who was the first in China to publicly warn of the virus.

"For 20 years I have been with every flu epidemic, but I have never seen a doctor, especially a young one, become infected and die," said Federle.

Even before the first corona cases from Austrian ski resorts spilled into Germany, she called her team together and tried to set up a strategy in order to be prepared.

Federle considers the “lockdown light” from November to be a serious mistake.

“The politicians wanted to please everyone.

They only made the virus right. "

They were shocked by the long debates about which way to go.

“As an emergency doctor, I am used to making quick decisions and acting immediately.

If I first think about it forever and argue about the right treatment, then the patient may be dead. "

The statistics show that their strategy is bearing fruit: Among the positives at the Tübingen University Hospital, not even ten percent are currently over 65 years old.

Eight of them are in the intensive care unit.

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