Clubs start in March
Germany affords looseness
A comment by Frauke Niemeyer
2/16/2022, 9:44 p.m
The Germans have restricted themselves for a long time, now nationwide corona rules are falling for the first time. A step that people have earned through solidarity, and one can simply be happy about that.
It would have been more entertaining with Söder. The Bavarian Prime Minister sat for around a year and a half – next to the then Chancellor – in the press conference after the Corona rounds between the federal and state governments and brought this certain willingness to escalation into the round, which Germany often had to navigate through dramatic situations.
At the press conference after the round on Wednesday, you waited in vain for a casual saying on the sidelines, although the perspective of the decisions would have given it: Germany is relaxing significantly, and almost immediately. But the trio of Scholz, Wüst and Giffey could definitely be seen to be quite satisfied with what the Round of 17 decided today, for the moment and for the future. Oha, does the alarm have to go off here? Satisfied smiling politicians in the pandemic, isn’t that a very bad sign?
But probably not in this case and on this day, and Chancellor Olaf Scholz gets to the point very well why: He believes “that sometimes it makes sense to look around: Germany is probably the most successful country in dealing with the current pandemic development”. Vaccination isn’t great because the quotas aren’t high enough, but the measures “that we all carried out together” worked. “They have led us down a path that others have not followed, who have therefore had to go through this winter and fall with more infections.”
And indeed, one is inclined to agree with Scholz in his balance sheet and even to add one aspect to it: not only were the measures effective in protecting the vulnerable and the hospitals, but the extent of the restrictions priced in two important factors: that Omikron causes less severe courses and that the level of immunization of the Germans is much higher this winter than it was in the previous waves. Last winter it was zero.
Don’t prevent infections at all costs
Instead of too many severe courses, there was now a risk of too many failures due to quarantine in the critical infrastructure. The lockdown was relaxed accordingly, and there was no longer any quarantine for those who had been boosted. Children played football, choirs rehearsed and birthdays were also celebrated. The aim was not to prevent infections at any price, but rather the collapse of the clinics, and as things stand, that has been achieved.
For the first time in the Corona pandemic, a federal-state committee decided to open the doors based on the vote of a fixed panel of experts, researchers from various disciplines, who, after weighing many aspects, had agreed on a recommendation. And that was: Cautious loosening is now possible. The backs of the three politicians were correspondingly broad today when they announced that they would take this risk despite the still high number of infections.
The Chancellor deliberately avoided the expression “Freedom Day” for the prospects of spring easing, even when a question explicitly referred to it. And one tends to believe that he actually does not consider this expression – coined by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and subsequently adopted in many German reports and debates – to be appropriate in the weighing of these valuable goods: basic rights for all against self-restraint for protection the weak. A consideration that will remain difficult, even painful, because the virus will remain.
Germany can celebrate that it has kept the deadly pathogen at bay this winter and despite the low vaccination rate, with the help of solidarity, even in moments when no one would ever prove a violation of the rules. Solidarity, the effect of which could be seen in the number of patients in the clinics, and which has now allowed today’s relaxation. It is currently not possible to predict how things will continue in spring, whether there will ever be any compulsory vaccination. But that is one reason to be happy about this day, which will make life easier, right now and just for once.