Full house and lively discussion at the first Publix Thursday
The new series of events in the building kicked off with an important premiere: virologist Christian Drosten and journalist Georg Mascolo presented their book on the coronavirus pandemic. The series now continues with free events every Thursday.
‘Get through it OK?’ This is what virologist Prof. Christian Drosten and journalist Georg Mascolo have called their new book of conversations about the coronavirus pandemic. At the first Publix Thursday, they presented their intensive dialogue on the ‘long shadow of the pandemic’, which was published by Ullstein Verlag. Moderated by Jakob Simmank, Head of Health at ZEIT ONLINE, the fully booked forum focused on the lessons that politicians and the media can learn in retrospect. Afterwards, the interested and well-informed audience had half an hour to ask the book authors direct questions.
The discussion revolved very specifically around autumn 2020, when German politicians lost control of the pandemic and the public mood changed. Drosten said that he did not want to leave the review of the coronavirus pandemic to those who argue with untruths. Mascolo explained the mechanisms of political decision-making processes and made a plea for strong media-critical journalism.
‘The pandemic has had a profound impact on all of our lives,’ said Publix Director Maria Exner. ‘How important and how beneficial it is to look back on this crisis now, to discuss it in a focussed, critical and respectful way and to ask what the media and politicians should learn from it is what our 150 guests experienced at Publix this evening.’
After this great premiere, the Publix Thursdays will now continue. Every Thursday at 6.30 pm, we open the forum in the building for current issues relating to journalism and the public sphere. This series of events is free of charge until the end of the year. Tickets for the next dates and other events can be found here: https://www.publix.de/en/program
Fotocredit: Paul Alexander Probst