The “hard” lockdown is an attempt to apply an emergency brake. It is not a strategy for the entire winter. The federal and state governments must now urgently deliver. And they would have to have a plan B.
A comment by Holger Schwesinger, tagesschau.de
In contrast to the first wave in spring, where there was rightly a lot of praise for the determined and at the same time measured corona policy in Germany, the policy before and in the second wave has been quite a disaster – otherwise the incidence and above all would be different death rates are not developing as they are currently.
Instead of using the relaxation in summer, for example, to develop better concepts for schools, old people’s homes or even the health authorities, instead of simply making quick tests or FFP2 masks accessible in good time before the second wave – which was expected to come Instead of reacting quickly and decisively to the rising numbers in autumn, a lot of time was wasted. For example, by arguing about things like the ban on accommodation, the absurdity of which culminated in the fact that in Bavaria it should not apply to people who have their place of residence in Bavaria because everything is under control in Bavaria. That lowered confidence in politics, but not the number of new infections.
What if the “hard” lockdown is not enough?
So now the emergency brake and yet a “hard” lockdown after the lockdown “light” has demonstrably not worked. The really tough turning point is that stores now have to close too. And otherwise? Schoolchildren should stay at home from Wednesday if possible, but would have gone on vacation shortly anyway. In principle, the contact restrictions are the same as those that applied so far. And what additional effect the nightly curfews should have for fighting pandemics when everything is closed anyway is at least questionable. But maybe we’re lucky – and the tightening of the lockdown, together with the Christmas slowdown, is actually enough to massively reduce the numbers.
And if not? Politicians owe the answer to this. To look ahead: Those responsible at the federal and state levels now urgently need to present a common strategy that goes beyond the moment. Because there is the ray of hope that the combination of vaccination and better weather could take the horror away from the virus. But that will probably take a few more months. There has to be a strategy for the time until then – and it should contain a plan A, a plan B and maybe also a C.
Discuss plans before making decisions
Because maybe a lockdown, sometimes tightened and sometimes loosened, is actually the right way to go for the coming months. But maybe not. And maybe Germany – financially and socially – will at some point simply no longer be able to cope with it. Perhaps one has to accept that the number of new infections will remain high and focus on reducing the number of serious illnesses and deaths by better protecting the risk groups. And maybe there are other alternatives as well.
It is important that such questions are discussed in a democracy – in the Bundestag and in the state parliaments. And if possible before measures are decided and not always afterwards. In the spring, the argument was correct that there was no time for that. But after Corona has been the determining topic of politics for more than nine months, this argument no longer applies.
The tone must also change
And something else has to change: the tone. Some politicians enjoy constantly driving new scapegoats through the village who, in their opinion, are behaving particularly irresponsibly. Sometimes it’s day trippers who want to go to the Baltic Sea, sometimes it’s skiers. Sometimes it’s mulled wine drinkers, sometimes the party-loving Berliners. This may distract from one’s own failures, but it does not help in combating the pandemic.
Sure, there are people who behave irresponsibly. And there are also those who consciously try to torpedo the measures to combat corona – for example because they have lost their perspective because of sheer lateral thinking or because they want to torpedo the whole “system” anyway.
But anyone who drinks a mulled wine with friends on the street is probably just trying to live a little normalcy in a state of emergency. The vast majority of people know the gravity of the situation and try to behave appropriately. Knowing that instead of new Corona rules every two weeks there is a longer-term strategy would make that much easier.
