Status: 04.12.2021 12:15 p.m.
Since 2006, Chancellor Merkel has addressed the population directly in more than 600 video messages. She now used the last podcast of her term in office to promote vaccination once again.
The outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel has again campaigned for more vaccinations and called for solidarity in the fight against the spread of corona. “We are in a very serious situation in the middle of this fourth wave of pandemics, in some parts of our country it can only be called dramatic,” said the CDU politician in her last weekly video message as Chancellor. So please once more urgently: “Take the malicious virus seriously.”
Every vaccination helps, said Merkel with a view to initial and booster vaccinations. Because it gives the vaccinated security, and a high vaccination quota ultimately helps everyone “as a country to leave this pandemic behind us”. Merkel referred to “overcrowded intensive care units”, seriously ill people who would have to be flown across Germany, and the currently “so terribly high number” of people who are killed by the virus. “This is so bitter because it could be avoided. With effective and safe vaccines, we have the key to this in hand.”
Merkel: Joint effort is necessary
The Chancellor also thanked those people who were “sensible and understanding” during this difficult time and who adhered to the rules out of self-protection and out of concern for others. “They make up the vast majority in our country. Every day they show the citizenship that is so wonderful about our country – and without which no Federal Chancellor and no government can achieve anything.” The coming difficult weeks can only be mastered with a joint effort. “I sincerely wish that we can do this together.”
Merkel also drew a satisfied balance of her more than 600 podcasts, in which she had regularly addressed the population at weekends in recent years. In the first episode in June 2006, the format was “quite a specialty”. “I’ve always seen the podcast as a way to tell you directly about topics that are close to my heart,” she said. The podcast was particularly valuable to her in times of pandemic.