opinion
Fourth corona wave
Too little of everything: because politics has failed, we have to take the helm into our own hands!
Olaf Scholz and Angela Merkel explain the new measures against Corona.
© Michael Kappeler / Picture Alliance
The corona measures fall short and come too late. But given the grave situation, we can no longer afford to wait for politics. We now have to take responsibility ourselves, believes our author.
It’s not enough. The vaccinations are not enough. The measures are not enough. Consideration is not enough. There is hardly any other way of explaining how it got that far again.
Infection numbers break new records every day. There is now a maximum of one in every fourth rural district a free intensive care bed. Anyone whose operations are canceled in the next few weeks on the grounds that it is “not vital” or who have to drive to the clinic next but one with a stroke can thank those who, contrary to any scientific consensus, are still reluctant to vaccinate. And of course with the politically responsible.
The RKI boss has had enough – and rightly so
“It’s ten past twelve,” warned Health Minister Spahn. He is right. But all the more the question arises as to how it can be that politics blindly stumbled into the next corona wave for the fourth (!) Time. Well, the first time the government still had puppy protection. But by wave number two and three at the latest, action could have been taken faster and more consistently if one had listened to science.
No, those responsible had to let it get so far that even the man who soberly explained the infection situation to us since the beginning of the pandemic broke patience. “The perception that it is enough is simply factual, scientifically founded wrong,” rumored RKI boss Lothar Wieler on Thursday. Shortly afterwards he apologized for his “clear language”, but after 21 months he just couldn’t take it anymore.
The Chancellor also found clear words when she presented the resolutions of the Prime Minister’s Conference. It is really time to act, stressed Merkel. She and Spahn are also jointly responsible, because the time to act would have been in summer, or at the latest at the end of September, when the numbers went up again.
‘Too little, too late’ remains the motto of politics
Perhaps everything would have turned out differently if the point in time of the rising curve had not coincided with the federal election, of all places. Instead of dealing with booster vaccinations and the various G-rules in September, the politicians were busy with the election campaign. Now, at one of the most critical points of this pandemic, we have two governments that prefer to leave action to the other.
The majority of Germans are fed up with a policy that, dismayed, throws their hands over their heads at every further wave and asserts that they really did not see it coming. Just like Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder, who appeared in the BR broadcast “Controversial“claimed that science had misjudged the force of the wave. To put it in Wieler’s words, that is simply factual, scientifically founded wrong. The RKI forecast already in July a sharp increase in incidences from October. And leading virologists, such as Christian Drosten, recommended that booster vaccinations should be considered shortly after the vaccination campaign began.
And what do the traffic light parties do? They decide to end the epidemic emergency and present a bill that juggles a nationwide 2G regulation like a raw egg. The restrictions should only apply where the virus situation threatens to really get out of control. Even after the RKI boss has repeatedly emphasized in the past few days that vaccination gaps must be closed and 2G is simply no longer sufficient in the current situation, the motto of the corona policy remains ‘too little, too late’.
Be sensible together one last time
So what can we do if politics repeatedly fails like this? The answer is: We have to take the helm ourselves and help ensure that we get through this fourth wave with some lightness.
By vaccinating and getting boosted. By internalizing the hygiene rules that we neglected over the summer, reducing our contacts and getting tested regularly. By staying home when we feel sick. By trying to make friends, family members and acquaintances who are skeptical about vaccinations see their senses.
And no, we cannot influence everything. But we can do what is our own responsibility and act sensibly. Even if we are tired and angry and all can no longer hear the C word. We have no choice but to grit our teeth one more time and work together to ensure that the fourth wave will be the last serious one.