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Germany's test debacle: The attempt to urge people to vaccinate has crashed. comment

2021-11-03T18:48:31.002Z


With 3G and the end of the free Covid tests, the federal and state governments wanted to urge Germans to vaccinate. The attempt failed, the collateral damage is immense.


Enlarge image

Corona rapid test is being discontinued

Photo: Matthias Balk / dpa

It all sounded so logical: if you grabbed the vaccinees where it hurts, they would feel.

And it really hurts for many Germans when it comes to money.

That was the basic idea behind the abolition of the free corona tests.

Without a vaccination or test, you can no longer get into restaurants, pubs or hotels and some shops.

3G is the name of the rule - vaccinated, recovered or tested.

And since October 11th, the tests have cost most people money.

Often between 15 and 20 euros.

It is no small matter.

Those who do not want to be vaccinated but still want to participate in social life have to pay.

The expectations associated with this sanction mechanism were huge: "Chargeable tests will mean that very many will still be vaccinated because they want to avoid regular testing," said SPD expert Karl Lauterbach at the time.

And Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) said: "Abolishing free citizen tests requires fairness in front of the taxpayer."

Vaccination at a snail's pace

And now?

The inventory a good three weeks later is quite sobering: since October 11th, around 762,000 people in Germany had been vaccinated by Tuesday.

A pitiful number.

Around 150,000 of them are young people between the ages of 12 and 17, for whom the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) had only issued a vaccination recommendation just eight weeks earlier.

That leaves an increase of around 600,000 people willing to vaccinate among adults.

This is how many first vaccinations there were regularly at the peak of the vaccination campaign - per day.

The declared goal of triggering a vaccination boom with financial pressure has therefore failed.

Internationally, Germany has fallen far behind.

The vaccination rate is higher in almost all countries in Western Europe.

The collateral damage is immense: Since the free offers are no longer available, significantly less testing is carried out.

Although the rate of vaccination breakthroughs increases significantly after the first vaccination, people who have been vaccinated can only be professionally found out whether they are infected if they are paid.

And even if you want to pay for it, the next test center is often so far away, especially in rural areas, that you would rather save yourself the trip.

In the middle of the fourth corona wave, Germany robbed itself of an effective instrument to get the pandemic under control.

The costs that are now rolling onto the German health system may be much higher than the amount that the state has saved because it no longer pays for the tests.

Opponents of vaccination stylize themselves as freedom fighters

In addition, the method of financial sanctions and exclusion has further worsened the social climate in Germany.

Many who have not wanted to be vaccinated before do not want it now.

In their own filter bubble, they can stylize themselves as freedom fighters against a supposedly repressive state - and unfortunately often develop an almost sporty ambition to somehow bypass the obligation to test.

If the federal and state governments had used more money and ideas from the beginning to convince people to vaccinate with good arguments and positive incentives, more people might have been immunized today - and the fronts might not have hardened quite as much.

Unfortunately, this error cannot be turned back completely.

But with a quick return to free trials for everyone, the fourth wave would be at least a little easier to combat.

And maybe politicians will also manage not to make similar mistakes again with the urgently pending booster vaccinations.

Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2021-11-03

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