“How Germany got it right while Great Britain was wrong” – headlined the British Telegraph. The “New Zealand Herald” counted Germany among the winners of the corona crisis, with its strategy in the fight against the pandemic it is a role model worldwide. And from Israel it was said that Merkel was seen in the Corona crisis as a leader “who can make people understand the situation”. These hymns of praise were all barely a year ago. And yet seem like from a distant time.
Fight against corona: is that still Germany?
If you had been able to place bets in the summer of 2020 as to who could also get the second and perhaps third corona wave perfectly under control internationally, many would have put all their money on Germany. Of course, “Made in Germany”, the organization world champion, with these researchers who are developing a new vaccine in no time at all.
The people who would have bet like this would all be bare now.
Deep crash of the crisis world champions: Chancellor Angela Merkel and Health Minister Jens Spahn
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Because Germany has mutated from the globally respected nerd in the corona pandemic to a problem schoolchildren whose transfer is at great risk in some areas. Masks? Too few. Vaccinate? Too stingy. Testing? Too late. Digitalization? Anyway, stayed seated. The evaluation could say: always making an effort, but then too strongly oriented towards the rules and too little creative.
“Is that still Germany?” Not only do many Germans ask themselves, people abroad also rub their eyes in amazement. And in some places you can even feel a certain glee about the former model student, who always liked to brag about his homework.
Great Britain: “Germany loses the COVID crown”
Most of the malice about Germany’s slow vaccination start comes from Great Britain, where the government boasts that it has already taken care of a third of its population. Germany is a “vaccine snail”, the “Daily Mail” quotes a headline in the German newspaper Bild and explains: “Previously praised for one of the best COVID reactions worldwide, Germany is now plagued by high case numbers, a high death rate and a vaccination start, in which just two out of a hundred citizens were vaccinated in a month, which Israel can do in one day. “
“Germany is losing the COVID crown” writes the “Financial Times”: “Germany is famous for Vorsprung durch Technik, engineering and general competence. No wonder that the COVID-19 vaccination campaign is now becoming a national disgrace”.
Greetings to Germany from the vaccination head: Great Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson
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And the “London Times” refers to a comment in the Bild newspaper, in which it says: “Dear Britons, we envy you”. To which the “Sun” replies smugly: “We don’t envy you!” And in the “Guardian” a columnist mocked that Germany’s vaccination campaign for a Europhilen dyed in the wool was a disappointment: “Shouldn’t all this technology bring a bit of a head start?”
Spain: Gone with German superiority
One is irritated in Spain, where “El País” from Madrid headlines: “The mistakes of the German government in series have erased any idea of German competence or superiority.”
Spain has also been hit hard by Corona, after all, with over 71,000 deaths, the country has almost as many victims from COVID-19 as Germany – but 36 million fewer inhabitants. With the exception of the Iberian Peninsula, you can feel the feeling that has crept into many Germans for a few weeks: that the German government, which received a huge boost in confidence and popularity thanks to its forward-looking policy in the first corona wave, is simply no longer doing the right thing today. “Germany”, El País continues, “is ultimately not that special. Only the distance between his self-perception and reality is greater.”
In France and other European countries, the press looks less at Germany and its misconduct, but criticizes the European Union for its purchasing policy for vaccines. Because no EU country has got enough of it so far, and nowhere in the EU is the vaccination campaign going well enough for someone to point a finger at Germany.
USA: Compassion has replaced admiration
In the country where people are vaccinated in football stadiums, in drive-in stations, in supermarkets, even in churches, where almost three million vaccine doses are now injected in a day and where the diagnosis is already in the state of New Jersey ” Smoker “is enough to get a vaccination, many people now feel something about Germany that is almost worse than malice: pity.
Of all people, Donald Trump, whom many in the United States attribute responsibility for the more than half a million COVID-19 deaths – and whom the Germans feared more than Corona at times – did not bother about vaccination. The former president ordered a huge amount of Moderna and BioNTech Pfizer vaccination doses before it was even clear whether the vaccinations would be effective.
Superman also helps with the vaccinations in the USA: a doctor in Pennsylvania in early March
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Long gone are the times at the beginning of the pandemic, when “The German Covid-Response” was reported with admiration in the USA. When the United States compared itself to Germany, especially in view of the initially low death rate and the largely carefree summer in Germany, while one sad record after the next set in in the United States.
In 2021, however, the carefree summer will likely take place in the USA and not in Germany. President Joe Biden has just announced an ambitious goal of offering vaccinations to all American adults by the end of May.
Russia – West’s Failure to Obtain Vaccine
Russia, too, vaccinates what it takes – now everyone can have a Sputnik V injected free of charge, regardless of age and occupation. In clinics, in shopping centers and in Moscow even in the opera. The authorities started mass vaccinations against COVID-19 as early as December, thereby declaring victory over the corona pandemic.
The dispute over the vaccination campaign in the European Union is often discussed in Russian media as the failure of the West in the fight against Corona. While Russia has long had enough of a vaccine named after a successful Soviet satellite – an allusion to the successes of the Russians in space, which were now also evident in the fight against Corona.
And Germany? Many Russians have recently come to know the name of the German Federal Minister of Health, which has come under fire. When Jens Spahn had to answer questions about his controversial corona policy in a government survey in the Bundestag two weeks ago, this could not only be seen on all channels in Germany. But also big on the Russian evening news.
Israel: Israelis living in Germany come to be vaccinated
When fighting the corona virus, it was always a bit like the story with the rabbit and the hedgehog with Israel and Germany: Israel has always been there. The mask requirement quickly applied everywhere, in Germany for a long time only in certain places.
Israel went into the second lockdown in September, earlier than Germany. And after an unprecedented vaccination campaign with the BioNTech Pfizer vaccine, more than half of the population is now vaccinated with at least one dose. A number that Germany might reach in July or August.
The so-called “green passport” has been in existence since February, giving people who have been vaccinated and those who have survived COVID-19 access to fitness clubs, sports and cultural events. If you ask Israelis about Germany, you get astonished looks at the slow vaccination campaign.
Since Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv is now open again, many Israelis living in Germany are apparently considering visiting their homeland over the Passover holidays at the end of March and getting vaccinated right away. Tenor: In Germany, it’s usually late in the summer.
China: Germany as a “warning”
Perhaps the most depressing news for Germany, how foreign countries are looking at the country during the Corona crisis, comes from China: The media rate their own success in fighting the virus not only as a reference to Western countries, but also as a constant one Reminder not to let up. The example of Germany shows how not to do it. Frequently used title: “Warning”.
In Germany itself, some are now hoping that vaccination could soon be faster. The approval of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, more doses from other manufacturers, vaccination from the family doctor: all of this could bring speed. Nobody expects Germany to become a global Corona model again as it was a year ago.
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