Disturbing actionism: the risky corona bet

Saturday, March 6th, 2021

Disturbing actionism
The risky corona bet

A comment by Horst von Buttlar

The corona measures are causing exhaustion and attrition in this country. The federal and state governments react to this with a confused opening plan. He tries to regulate what nobody is convinced of.

The American writer T.C. Boyle recently said he could imagine writing a story from the perspective of the coronavirus. Of course, he could slip into the "viral head" of Covid-19, said the 72-year-old bestselling author. (In his new book, Boyle tells from the perspective of a chimpanzee, among other things.)

At the end of this week, one wonders what the virus thinks about the German step-by-step plan to open up the federal and state governments. It's a shame Boyle doesn't just get started. But would it be a story or just a loud, roaring laugh from this virus and its mutated relatives? And doesn't that say everything?

It would be my job to comment on this step-by-step plan – but the more I read about it, the less I understood. And before I write a comment that rivals the "Karamazov Brothers" in length, let me put it this way: This confusion and Boyle's role-play reveals the core of the problem. The step-by-step plan with the five opening steps, the 14-day rhythms and a 50 to 100 incidence scheme fits graphically on paper, but does not fit the nature of the virus: It tries to regulate what can hardly or not at all . It is disturbing and not illuminating, as it were a graphic symbiosis of all the despair and slogans of criticism that we have been hearing for months: patchwork, federal-state cacophony, opening discussion orgy, opening frenzy, opening perspective, "driving on sight".

Illusion of perspective

This graphic will perhaps be exhibited in a museum once in a few decades. And you will look at them, puzzled or incomprehensible, just as we look today at pictures of the plague or photos of the fight with the Spanish flu. And you won't even recognize how desperate people must have been to create something like this: Because this graphic is also a surrender, not because of its obsession with detail, but because it tries to regulate an opening that nobody is really convinced of .

As always, it is unfair and self-righteous to pretend from the sidelines, to know what to do when one is not responsible for the consequences. It has become more and more difficult for elected politicians to give the hardliner and justify lockdowns, given the exhaustion, attrition and "corona corrosion" of the Germans, as the psychologist Stephan Grünewald put it.

That is why, after four months of lockdown, Germany is making one of its biggest and probably riskiest bets: We will open up, at least create an illusion of perspective, in the hope that it won't get that bad. We hope that we will somehow set up a system with rapid tests and that the vaccination campaign will pick up speed.

The opening is also a small surrender by the Chancellor who actually wanted to avoid openings. In the past few weeks, some countries had pulled out and had schools, hardware stores or garden centers open. They created opening facts, the justifications began to oscillate between incidences of 35 and 100, while for a few days the real incidence did one thing in particular: it stagnated and then it rose.

Quick test everyday

Rapid tests, millions of times, are now supposed to bring hope in addition to vaccinations. They are – unfortunately, contact restrictions remain the core – building blocks for opening up. They should become part of our everyday life: the test in the bathroom in the morning, brushing our teeth, off to school and to the company, throwing in the test, and after a few hours the result by email or on the smartphone. Anyone who goes to a concert can be tested, who wants to fly, too.

There are successful model projects in schools and companies for this, and the CIO of the Rostock diagnostics company Centogene, Volker Weckesser, has interesting examples. But he also warns of an illusion and "false security" that tests bring. And he says one thing above all: If we weren't prepared for this winter, then we should at least be prepared for the coming winter.

What I learned from the conversation with him: There are ideas and solutions, some of which have also been successfully tested in schools, daycare centers and companies. You just have to get to know these projects better and then not just try them out, but roll them out.

The first companies such as Allianz or Deutsche Telekom have also suggested having their employees vaccinated through the company doctors – many companies have experience with flu vaccinations. Sounds complicated? Legally Difficult? Or even unfair? Of course there are unanswered questions and hurdles. However, if you are the first to warn, I recommend taking a look at the step-by-step plan above. Does that sound better? Just. We have to use all resources, also go unconventional ways, give private providers more space and unleash all forces on site – where the state is overwhelmed with its organization or has already failed.

Horst von Buttlar is editor-in-chief of "Capital". This text first appeared on Capital.de.