So what has happened now is what so many have warned about for so long and so often. A mutation of the coronavirus has developed in various countries in southern Africa, which is possibly much more contagious than any variant known to date. Politicians react with entry restrictions, which is certainly the right thing to do. But one thing is also certain: if Africa had been supplied with vaccine as quickly as is now being imposed on entry bans, the situation would be different.
For months the rich north has been talking about global solidarity, about the fact that the pandemic will only be over when it has been defeated everywhere. In Sub-Saharan Africa, however, only a little more than five percent of the people are vaccinated, in countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo not even one percent. There are various reasons for this: corrupt and incompetent governments, colonial experiences with a health system that Africans have often used as guinea pigs. Fake news and superstitions.
But above all, the low vaccination rate is due to the fact that the rich countries hoard the doses and the poor get little or nothing. And if they do, then the vaccines, which Americans and Europeans are not in the mood for. It is an incredible moral failure of societies that so often schoolmasterly tell others what they are doing wrong.
The consequences are brutal. The first tourists have just returned to South Africa
For German politics, the discovery of the variant seems to be a welcome opportunity to simulate drive. Jens Spahn speaks out powerfully and imposes an entry ban from southern Africa. That may not be wrong. But one should bear in mind that a country with almost 70,000 new cases per day puts South Africa on the red list, even though there are only around 3,000 new infections per day there. At the same time, the entry restrictions are diligently circumvented. Direct flights have been restricted, but any traveler can fly in largely uncontrolled via Ethiopia, Dubai, Istanbul or Qatar. Why not do it right right away? With hotel quarantine?
Caution is better because the new omicron variant has disturbing mutations. In Germany and Europe, however, people only talk about what that means for the people here. Not for southern Africa. South Africa is ultimately punished for having incredibly good and idealistic scientists who do research in a difficult environment and who have promptly and transparently informed the rest of the world what is going on. The consequences are brutal. The first tourists have just returned to this fantastic country, now it’s all over again. Hundreds of thousands of jobs are lost, hardly anyone in Germany talks about it. Where is the solidarity? Why is there no fund for poor countries?
Germany seals itself off – and celebrates carnival
In Germany people prefer to talk about so-called freedom, they discuss the fact that people cannot be forced to be vaccinated. That would divide society. As a result, you not only have a divided German society, but also a global one.
Germany isolates itself from a large part of the world, for which this has catastrophic consequences – at the same time, hundreds of thousands of carnivals are celebrating in this country. Football millionaires like Joshua Kimmich are allowed to live out their oath madness and carry out their body-hugging activity maskless, because otherwise freedom would be threatened. Anyone who has ever worked in the underpaid German catering industry knows that you need a health certificate, which for many years resulted in a very unpleasant procedure. You had to put a piece of feces in a tube. Strangely enough, this encroachment on private freedom did not lead to the emergence of any lateral thinker movements.
It’s just like that, German politics shows hardness and drive on the Corona issue, especially when the consequences affect others, outside of one’s own constituency. Germany hoards vaccines and does not sell anything. Germany celebrates carnival and destroys tourism in southern Africa. It’s so bitter