SZ: Ms. Ammon, an Andrea Ammon was mentioned in the SZ in the mid-1980s. She took part in the squash district championships in Attaching, Bavaria. There were only four participants, but Ms. Ammon won. Was that you?
Andrea Ammon: (laughs) Yes, I used to play a lot of squash. After that only sporadically. But there will soon be time for something like that again.
That’s correct. You are about to end a long career. How does that feel?
I started at the health department in Freising, then worked at the Ministry of Social Affairs in Munich, then at the Robert Koch Institute and the last 19 years at the ECDC. I can say one thing today: I have never been bored for a minute in 37 years. The field of infectious diseases is so dynamic, there is always something new coming out.
The biggest event you experienced was certainly the Corona pandemic, which came right in the middle of your term as Director of the ECDC. How did you react to that?
When suspicions arose in early 2020, It was pretty clear that there could also be asymptomatic virus transmissions: this will be very widespread. We then stopped everything except for a few really essential projects. We had to constantly update the recommendations because there were always new findings. There were hundreds of thousands of meetings. During this time we regularly worked in two shifts from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. In addition, there are always colleagues who monitor the infection process at night anyway.
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Now the ECDC is in Swedenin the very country that took a special approach to the pandemic. To what extent has this influenced your work?
Even though Sweden is our host country, we see it as a member state like any other. And each country has adapted the measures a little to its context. In Sweden, primary schools were kept open; face masks were not consistently recommended. Otherwise, the government’s recommendations did not differ much from those of the ECDC. Here, too, the streets were much emptier than usual.
The ECDC has no authority to issue instructions. Do you ever wish you could just instruct things?
Of course. We are here to compile figures for the whole EU. But during the pandemic, countries collected the corona numbers very differently. Some only tested people who were hospitalized. Others tested ten percent of their population every week. Of course, these figures are difficult to compare. But on their basis we had to create the infamous maps, red for countries with many cases, green for few. These were then used as the basis for travel restrictions. I would have liked to have been able to say how comparable data should be collected across Europe.
However, I do not want us to tell the countries what health measures they should take in their kindergartens. We are too far away for that.
There is now a lot of debate about how to deal with the pandemic. What kind of review do you think is important?
It is important to take into account the state of knowledge at the time when reviewing the situation. Otherwise it will be unfair. The pandemic has presented us all with situations that we have never experienced before. At the time, countries had very different ideas about how to deal with it. For example, how to quickly organize more hospital beds. Some ideas worked, some didn’t. It is important to record this now for later times.
We have also seen that it is necessary to support measures in which we do not have much experience with research right from the start. That is not easy; In such crisis situations everything goes haywire anyway. But you can certainly prepare a lot so that such studies can begin more quickly.
How has the ECDC changed since you took over as director?
The biggest changes came with the pandemic. We have more visibility, including globally. I am pleased that the ECDC is no longer somewhere in the background, but has more weight. Our recommendations and suggestions may now be implemented more quickly. And we have started a more intensive dialogue with the member states. Up until now, this has not always necessarily gone in both directions.
What does that mean?
The countries have always provided us with their data, and sometimes there has been an exchange about it. But only a few approached us on their own initiative and asked for help. Especially not those who I would have thought would need additional support the most.
And is that different now?
We have changed our approach. We are now also actively reaching out to the countries.
What do you tell them then?
For example, during the pandemic I specifically approached representatives of countries whose corona vaccination rate was significantly below the EU average. We then heard all sorts of things. For example, that some family doctors were also skeptical about the vaccination. We then organized seminars for these doctors. That hasn’t yet brought about a major breakthrough. But we could see that the countries are open to such approaches.
What else would you have liked to have achieved?
I also wanted to push ahead with the internal restructuring of the center. So that the employees all work together towards a common goal. It would be nice if this also worked outside of a pandemic. Now there is a stronger demand that one’s own area is the most important.
What advice would you give to your successor? If she even wants your advice…
Yes, yes, we exchange ideas all the time. The most important thing is to maintain the scientific independence of the ECDC. It helped us a lot that people don’t question whether we are subject to any influences from industry or something similar. The job also requires a certain level of persistence. You have to try some things over and over again, then eventually it will work.
Let’s go back to your time after the ECDC. What are you planning to do – apart from maybe playing squash?
I’m going to move again from Sweden to Bavaria, to a rural area I haven’t decided yet, but where there is no light pollution. And then I’ll leave infectious diseases behind and study astronomy. Probably first in correspondence courses, I don’t want to have a tight daily rhythm again like I have now. But maybe in two years I’ll get bored of it and then I’ll do more studying. I have always been fascinated by the area.
Do you also want to set up a telescope?
Of course. That’s why I’m moving to the countryside.