Tuesday, November 02, 2021
Virus wave piles up
Make the tests for free again!
A comment by Volker Petersen
The free corona tests have been abolished in order to motivate more people to have a vaccination. But that went wrong. The vaccination rate has not increased, instead the number of people infected is increasing. The tests should be free again.
When the federal government decided to abolish the free corona tests from October 11th, that sounded like a good idea. Because in order to go to a café, cinema or concert, you had to be recovered, vaccinated or tested. So if you didn’t want to be vaccinated, you had it easy: Simply go to the test center, open your mouth and then enjoy a hot drink, Hollywood film or high culture. Who still needed a vaccination? A wrong incentive was set here, it was thought. So the state stopped paying. If you have to pay for the tests yourself, you would rather be vaccinated, so the hope. In addition, the general public should no longer co-finance the vaccine skeptics. But the danger of the fourth wave was underestimated. Now the numbers are rising again so rapidly that free tests are urgently needed. Because every detected infection is a small success in the fight against the virus.
You can help avert the great danger that the coronavirus brought on us from the beginning: That the health system is overloaded, that not everyone in the country receives the best possible health care and that more people are dying than would be unavoidable. Though in the minority, the unvaccinated can still cripple hospitals if they become infected en masse – and that’s exactly what experts predict. If clinics then go into emergency operation, other operations will have to be postponed. So everyone suffers as a result.
Vaccinated people are well protected, but …
Anyone who thought that vaccination would be fine and Corona over, is wrong. Vaccinated people are good, but not as well protected as some people might think. The fact that you can no longer get infected was a misunderstanding from the start. But even those who thought they were almost safe with vaccination against severe courses and hospital stays, have to rethink. The virus often simply ricochets off vaccinated people. But it occurs in such masses and is so aggressive that it always finds a few weaker vaccinated people. Percentages don’t matter much, but their absolute number could rise enough to be a problem for hospitals. The intensive care physicians from the DIVI register have already warned of overload.
It is now also known that people who have been vaccinated can pass the virus on, even if they are usually not as contagious as those who have not been vaccinated. The virologist Alexander Kekulé speaks of a “wave of the vaccinated”. The vaccinations reduce the risk of death considerably. But those who have been vaccinated must also remain cautious. Nevertheless, the situation is again similar to earlier phases of the pandemic. And that makes it necessary to pull proven instruments out of the drawer.
Which brings us to the tests. On the one hand, they give the authorities a better overview of the infection process and, above all, give the individual more security. Did I get infected at the Halloween party? Should I really go to the private birthday party? Tests can provide more clarity on such questions. The visit to the grandma, which RKI boss Lothar Wieler regularly cites as an example, could become a danger again. Because in the elderly, the vaccination protection wears off faster. Tests can save lives.
Hope was not fulfilled
Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder has called for the tests to be made free again only for vaccinated people. That would have the advantage that the pressure on the unvaccinated to get the injection after all would persist. However, it is questionable whether they can even be convinced. According to a Forsa survey, vaccination refusals are unlikely to change their minds. Since the end of the free tests, the vaccination rate has not increased significantly. The hope of motivating people to take injections in this way has not been fulfilled. In addition: If the goal is to gain clarity about what is happening in the infection, the tests must be available to everyone as far as possible.
3G is still valid in many places – for example in restaurants, cafés and pubs. However, experience shows that there are too many restaurateurs who do not even have a test shown. So it is easy for the unvaccinated to participate in public life without paying for tests. If these were available again for free, it can be expected that they will also be used again. And should the 2G model come soon, additional tests may also be necessary in view of the vaccination breakthroughs. If these were free, it would bring more security for everyone.