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Locked seating area at a swimming lake: summer will be good - but under what conditions?
Photo: Florian Gaertner / photothek.net / imago images / photothek
The first meteorological summer month has dawned, the curve of new infections is pointing steeply downwards.
But the politicians are making no move to end the objectively no longer justified lockdown - even though the permanent Warner Karl Lauterbach (SPD) announced a "good summer" weeks ago.
But how can summer be good if no one can plan their activities in advance?
The restaurateurs, the hoteliers and the citizens who want to plan family celebrations with 50 or 100 participants, the artists who want to perform and finally also the scientists who want to hold their conferences in the popular congress month of September: who is telling them at least under which Requirements all of these meetings may take place?
Of course, no one today can predict with certainty how high the seven-day incidence will be in August or September, but neither does anyone ask.
For many, it would be sufficient if the federal states were to specify in their Corona ordinances below which threshold values one or the other form of activity is re-approved.
Amazingly, there is no information from the authorities
The organizer would have to bear the residual risk of a short-term cancellation, but a minimum requirement for an event to take place is that one knows the rules a few months in advance under which something that used to be completely normal can take place again.
If not, it means that society is surrendering to a virus that may long ago have been defeated.
Health Minister Spahn (CDU) named an incidence of 20 as a "prerequisite for a carefree summer" on May 25, but he did not tell the voter what exactly he meant by that: which restrictions will be lifted if the mark of 20 is permanently undercut and which further threshold must be fallen below so that all remaining restrictions also fall?
Amazingly, there is no information from the responsible authorities.
An example: The Verein für Socialpolitik, the most important German-speaking economists' association, wanted to hold its annual conference at a Bavarian university at the end of September.
The decision whether this takes place as a face-to-face event or as a zoom conference had to be made by the end of May, as a meeting with almost 1000 participants cannot be planned overnight.
Neither the university concerned nor the Bavarian Ministry of Health wanted to make any statement as to the incidence at which a face-to-face event would be approved.
An identical request to the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Health ended with the same negative information.
Fast in restricting freedoms, but hesitant now
With all this, one must not forget that we are dealing here with fundamental freedoms for the citizens, which can only be temporarily suspended under very restrictive conditions.
In particular, the security measure must be necessary and effective, and there must not be any milder measures that are suitable for this.
While the active politicians in the federal states and at the federal level were very quickly prepared to withdraw these basic rights when the incidence rose, they are absolutely hesitant, if not to say stubborn, when the number of infections is falling.
Such an attitude cannot even be justified with the principle of caution, for example with the consideration that after a pandemic wave has subsided, a new one could begin very quickly, because a large percentage of the population has been vaccinated precisely to prevent this from happening, many of them with uncomfortable feeling, as naturally nothing can be known about possible long-term side effects of the vaccines.
Time for a clear opening plan
For some time now, claims have been circulating on the internet that the federal government is planning a #lockdownfor always. A typical statement on Twitter is: “You just can't understand it anymore. Incidence values are initially determined arbitrarily. Then, if the values are not reached, the values are corrected downwards. The main thing is that you can extend the lockdown indefinitely. "
Politicians and quality media will dismiss such statements as conspiracy theories. But if they really want to be credible, the relevant politicians must now come up with a full opening plan that defines the conditions under which fundamental rights will once again fully apply. And with "unrestricted" is meant: without distance rules, mask requirement, test requirement and limitation of the number of participants. Fundamental rights are fundamental rights and not gifts from the rulers to their subjects. And it is the task of the media to remind politicians of this in the run-up to a landmark federal election.
Freedom is not freedom if it is arbitrarily and ad hoc "granted" or withdrawn. You are only free if you can plan your life and prepare your activities. This applies to traders and artists as well as scientists and private individuals. It is high time that the conditions for an end to the long-running lockdown were laid down and announced to the citizens.