Fears grow in Germany of second wave of coronavirus infections

While protesters call for further relaxing of social restrictions, scientists warn of new dynamic

With the Covid-19 pandemic stretching into its third month in Europe, Germany is discovering that a competent handling of the crisis in the early stages can become a burden later on.

As the kind of dramatic scenes of overstretched health services witnessed in Italy or Spain never fully materialised in Germany, politicians have increasingly struggled to convince the public of the need for strict adherence to social distancing. Now this phenomenon, which the virologist Christian Drosten has called the prevention paradox", is fuelling fears of a second wave of the pandemic.