Friday, November 26th, 2021
Corona talks on ZDF
Mayor Bovenschulte explains Bremen vaccination success
By Marko Schlichting
Bad news is chasing itself in the Corona crisis. More than 100,000 people have now died from or with the virus. The incidence value rises and rises. On Thursday evening, Maybrit Illner and Markus Lanz discussed with their guests on ZDF whether the crisis could still be contained.
The summer was nice. The incidences were low and the vaccination campaign in Germany was in full swing. And then many politicians were in campaign mode. This wasn’t the time for bad news. So politics was silent. And she was silent too long. In the meantime, the corona pandemic no longer seems controllable. In Maybrit Illner and Markus Lanz’s talk shows yesterday evening, several politicians tried to show ways out of the pandemic. That wasn’t always convincing. But at least there is one federal state that could be a role model for all other countries, at least in terms of vaccination quota.
“The situation is serious for us”
Andreas Bovenschulte is an SPD politician. The 56-year-old has been Bremen’s mayor for a good two years. And he did a lot of things right in the Corona crisis for the two cities of Bremen and Bremerhaven, which make up the state of Bremen. A good 80 percent of all residents of the small country are vaccinated.
Bovenschulte is North German-hypothermic, nothing can disturb him that easily. Bremen, he explains to Markus Lanz, Bremen introduced the 2G rule very early on. For people over 60, the vaccination rate is currently 93 percent, and it is also very high for younger people. “We’d actually be through with the pandemic,” he says. That would also apply to the hospitals. In Bremen, 22 people are currently being treated in intensive care units, at the height of the pandemic there were 65. But Bovenschulte remains a realist: In Bremen, despite a lower incidence than last year, the situation is serious, in the other regions it is extremely serious.
Bovenschulte explains why so many people are vaccinated in Bremen with a “technically solid and large-scale vaccination campaign”. The country was supported by aid organizations and the economy. In Bremen and Bremerhaven there were many mobile vaccination teams that drove to the individual quarters. “We drove our vaccination trucks to where the vaccination quota was low,” says Bovenschulte – and by that he means above all socially disadvantaged areas with a high proportion of foreigners.
Still-Chancellery Minister Helge Braun said in the same broadcast that there were mobile vaccination offers all over Germany. But they weren’t really successful. For Braun there is now a quick way to dampen the crisis: The contacts would have to be reduced by 70 percent. For this purpose, major events and Christmas markets would have to be banned as well as full football stadiums. In addition, now is the time when old and new governments sit down and solve the problem.
Norbert Röttgen at Maybrit Illner made a very similar statement. Röttgen and Braun have applied for the CDU chairmanship. Maybe they even agreed, because Röttgen is calling for a non-partisan solution. “It would be a sign of bipartisanism if the current chancellor and the new chancellor addressed the citizens directly in a television speech. I appeal that we assume non-partisan responsibility.”
That is not enough for the FDP general secretary Volker Wissing. The future Minister of Transport wants it to be more specific. His suggestion: “Act immediately and use the measures that are possible in the Infection Protection Act – but do not discuss them.” Measures such as contact restrictions, tightening or a ban on large events could be implemented by the federal states tomorrow. Wissing: “The future government cannot do that, the federal states can do it immediately!” In any case, the measures have not yet been exhausted, said Wissing.
Discussion about lockdown
Green co-boss Robert Habeck also sees the duty of the federal states. He said to Illner that either the incidence values would now decrease, which he hoped. “or we will have to talk about other measures.”
For Bovenschulte it is important to make it clear to people what politics want. Those who demand a complete lockdown also demand it for those who have been vaccinated. You have to say that clearly.
Two things become clear this evening – a resignation from the old government and a certain hesitation in the new one. Or, to quote two politicians – Röttgen: “The current government has failed, the new one has already galloped up”, and Robert Habeck: “It is not easy for the coming government to make the right decisions; for the outgoing government Government you have to expect that. “