Organizing a family life with two children, two jobs, various hobbies and even more friendships is difficult under normal circumstances. If you also have to dance on Corona’s cutting edge, it will be really exhausting and nerve-wracking. Who must or is allowed to go where and when? What is missing? What is happening? And under what conditions? Which contacts are responsible and which are not? When is a PCR test advisable?
In this respect, pragmatism can also be a strong driving force to protect children with a spade. In this case, all family members are already fully vaccinated – except for the youngest. She’s still missing the second injection. So an appointment is needed, as soon as possible. The call to the Ebersberg vaccination center, so far always promising, unfortunately comes to nothing this time: Please register and register online, they say. Ah okay. Why make it simple when you can make it complicated? Well, the father creates a new profile for the nine-year-old in the registration portal, no problem. However, the procedure does not give him a slot in the vaccination center: There are no appointments available this afternoon, it says. Just like in the next twelve days.
But how can that be? The vaccination quota in the district is stagnating, there are low-threshold offers everywhere, the syringes are just thrown after you! The district office even announces that you can come to the vaccination center even on weekdays without an appointment. So daughter and father finally set off – into the unknown. Will they get an injection? And how long will they have to wait for it? To make it short: The two are the only customers. Not a single chair in the waiting area is occupied, the doors of the vaccination cabins are all wide open, the employees are noticeably happy to finally be able to welcome someone. The doctor can even remember the girl from the first spade. After 20 minutes it’s done.
All of this is nice – but raises questions. Is the vaccination campaign itself suffering from Long Covid? Was the operator just completely exhausted when she referred you to the online portal? And the system for digital appointment allocation? Has it caught a nasty virus so it can’t show any free slots anymore? One thing is certain: Vaccination should not only be offered to spontaneous people, but also to those who want or need to structure their everyday life. Otherwise, the protection for everyone will probably not work. Or is there something completely different behind all the obstacles? An appeal for more composure and flexibility perhaps? Couldn’t hurt, especially in these times.