Mélina Facchin (in Kehl), edited by Solène Leroux
modified to
9:16 a.m., November 23, 2021
Covid-19 is circulating at record speed in Germany: the incidence rate is close to 400, new daily contaminations number in the tens of thousands and in many regions hospitals are already saturated. The government points to the low vaccination rate. Yesterday, the Minister of Health declared that “at the end of winter almost everyone will be vaccinated, cured or dead”. Words that do not pass on the other side of the Rhine.
The health situation among our German neighbors is “dramatic” according to the word used by Chancellor Angela Merkel. The Covid-19, which has already killed nearly 100,000 people in the country, is circulating at breakneck speed. The government attributes this largely to the fact that many Germans are still unvaccinated. However, the words of Health Minister Jens Spahn yesterday shocked the Germans. “I am a little shocked that a Minister of Health could say that. I know that in Germany we have this problem, that there are many, many people who are against the vaccine”, explains a resident from Kehl, Germany.
68% of the German population vaccinated
Whether or not they are vaccinated, all the Germans met by our correspondent are dismayed that a member of the government addresses them like that. “It’s not the right method to encourage people to do it,” insists a German. “For me, it’s too brutal because he already calculates that there will be a lot of victims. Imagine if for example you have a grandmother, and your Minister of Health in France says to you ‘You know what? Maybe by the end of the pandemic, she’ll be dead,'” another raged.
Beyond the form, many also disagree on the substance of his remarks, like the arguments we can hear in France: they want to be free to be vaccinated or not. Only 68% of the German population is for the moment, and most fear a tightening of health measures which now seems inevitable.