Hand on heart: Do you know how to use the French-derived word Incidence translated? Very easily: Frequency. If you didn’t know that before, don’t worry. Because you’ve probably known for a long time what is meant when Angela Merkel or other important people talk about the “incidence value” again like about the weather. Sure, of course! According to Duden, the authoritative German dictionary, this is the “number of new diseases occurring within a group of people of a certain size during a certain period of time”.
In connection with the infectious disease also known as COVID-19, the group of people consists of 100,000 people and the period is seven days. And now a number comes into play that has been on everyone’s lips since the second lockdown imposed on Germany at the beginning of November: 50. No less a figure than Angela Merkel has named this magical limit, which must be broken below with all might. Relaxation is only possible again from an incidence value of 50.
A democratically questionable way of governing
That is why all of Germany stared for months at this number, with which so many hopes were connected: open schools and day-care centers, shops and restaurants, cinemas and museums, more private encounters and maybe even travel. These hopes were nourished by the Chancellor and the heads of government of the 16 federal states. Since March 2020, this replacement government, which is not provided for in the German constitution, has been deciding almost single-handedly what is allowed and, above all, prohibited in Germany.
DW editor Marcel Fürstenau
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This democratically questionable body has more than disappointed many people with its most recent resolutions: Suddenly, the 50 had become 35 almost overnight. Larger openings should only be possible from this incidence value. The reason for this seemingly arbitrary tightening is the virus mutations. However, experts have been warning of changed corona variants since the beginning of the pandemic. Nobody should pretend this is a surprise. Apart from that, research into how dangerous the mutants are is far from being conclusive.
Anyone who criticizes must expect teaching
Of course, all of this is also known to those who govern us at the federal level and in the states. You surround yourself with what will hopefully be the best women and men who research viruses, devise vaccination strategies, and devise relaxation scenarios. They never shared an opinion – corona-tired Germany has meanwhile got used to it. But you should be able to rely on the number 50! This target was kept in front of us in press conferences, talk shows and interviews – like a promise.
For almost four months now, the vast majority of the 83 million people in this country have admirably adhered to the prohibitions, which affect their private lives. And after all the privations for their discipline, they are not rewarded, but punished. Anyone who complains about this is taught from above that the number 35 has even been in the Infection Protection Act since November, yes, that’s true. But it is there as vague and half-baked as the Corona policy unfortunately still is.
The opposition’s phased plans are well thought out
And above all: the spoken word counts. Anyone who preaches an incidence value of 50 on every opportunity all the time must be measured by it. The rulers could also have understood the step-by-step plans for easing proposed by the opposition as an alternative – instead of dismissing them as populism. Also behind the concepts presented by the Free Democrats (FDP), Greens, Left and the “Alternative for Germany” (AfD) are mostly bright minds from science and business.
One of the ranks of the country bosses has now burst the collar: Armin Laschet. Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, where more than 20 percent of the population in Germany live. Life, says the Christian Democrat, “does not consist only of incidence values”. The possible candidate for chancellor of his party and potential Merkel successor after the federal election in September goes even further: one shouldn’t always invent new limit values ”to prevent life from happening again”.
CDU boss Laschet: populist and hope
Strong stuff, no question. In a polemical and populist way, someone expresses what many think. One can find this opportunistic, because Laschet, as Prime Minister, is jointly responsible for the recently announced route: no extensive easing before the infamous incidence value has fallen to 35. From this perspective, the currently most powerful and influential CDU politician after Angela Merkel is unreliable.
And yet Laschet is also a glimmer of hope for all those who are fed up with the erratic and miserably communicated corona policy. After the disaster with the incidence value of 50, which mutated to 35, many are asking: which number comes after? Hopefully not zero.
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