The great patchwork quilt
Tomorrow the federal and state governments will again discuss the corona measures.
There
is great pressure from the exhausted population to loosen it
- even if the targeted 35 incidence is a long way off, yes, the numbers are even rising and
look like
the
start of a third wave
.
Even if the vaccinations are going excruciatingly slow and hundreds of thousands of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine are stored unused in refrigerators - this does not induce the government to release the doses to all interested parties outside of the vaccination sequence.
Icon: enlarge
Customers in a reopened garden center in Bavaria on Monday
Photo: Peter Kneffel / dpa
After everything you hear from the countries, this time there is a
particularly inextricable mess
of contradicting opinions on the question of what to do now - and it doesn't look as if Germany will have a major master plan for the time on Wednesday the expiry of the current lockdown, but rather a
new patchwork quilt
.
In Schleswig-Holstein the zoos have been open again since yesterday, in Bavaria the garden centers, while Hamburg is introducing new mask requirements for the public.
The surveys don't really help you either: 56 percent of those surveyed would like to relax, according to the ZDF Politbarometer, but only 21 percent want it even if there is a third wave.
What should politics do with such moods?
Anyone who opens now without a plan can be confronted with exploding numbers in a few weeks, which will require closings again - and that just before vaccinations become widely available.
The third wave can hardly be stopped: Mutants infect many children
Politicians vs. Scientists
A hostility towards science is not only evident in the German tabloid media, but recently also in politics in some neighboring countries.
In
France
, President
Emmanuel Macron
boasts
that he has emancipated himself from his scientific advisory board and that he reads everything important himself - despite the
massive spread of virus mutations
and
miserable vaccination rates, he
did not
impose a lockdown
on the advice of scientists
.
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French President Macron visits a vaccination center
Photo: Benoit Tessier / dpa
In
Switzerland
, the Parliament's Economic Committee even wants to forbid members of the government's Corona task force from expressing themselves publicly by law.
The reason:
They would spread scenarios that were too gloomy
.
In any case, the country does not listen to the warnings of its scientists: On Monday, the Swiss
lockdown was partially relaxed
- after right-wing politicians described the country as a "dictatorship".
That we are "governed by scientists" has
always been a truism
in
Germany
too - it is only too obvious that this is not the case.
And that's right: politicians are elected, they have to take responsibility.
But to deliberately ignore scientists or shut them up means burying your head in the sand - and making the world the way you want it to be.
In this pandemic, this principle has not yet worked anywhere.
The last one who consistently tried that was
Donald Trump
- with a known outcome.
Corona pandemic:
only global and fair vaccination can protect us
The vaccination dilemma
The good news these days is how highly effective all available vaccines appear to be.
This applies not only to the drug from
Biontech and Pfizer
, but also to the AstraZeneca vaccine, which the Germans disdain: Even after one dose of vaccine, the number of hospitalizations for older patients is reduced by 80 percent, according to a British study.
In Germany
, the Standing Vaccination Commission has still
not
approved
the drug
for people over 65
-
in France
, the authorities have
now corrected
their
decision
.
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A kindergarten employee in Thuringia is vaccinated with the AstraZeneca agent
Photo: Michael Reichel / dpa
Studies show that the vaccines known to date have one thing in common: There is hardly anyone who has to
go to hospital because of Covid-19
after a vaccination
.
Unfortunately, word of this good news has got around far too little - then the AstraZeneca ampoules might not wait to be inoculated.
Yes, it is a drama that vaccines are not available because too little was ordered.
But what's worse, some vaccines are available and still lying around in the warehouse because they've been badmouthed in public for no reason.
In the
United States
, which Europeans like to feel superior to,
more than 50 million people
have already received
a primary vaccination
.
And here, as in
Great Britain
or
Israel
, the results of this rapid vaccination are already visible in the falling death rate - hopefully soon here too.
Here, US correspondent Roland Nelles describes why the US is so successful, how it vaccinates hundreds of thousands in stadiums and supermarkets - and what Europeans could learn from it:
Germany left behind: Why the USA is so much better at vaccination
Winner of the day ...
... is
Mikhail Gorbachev
, who is 90 years old today.
The
German unit
would be without the
former general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
have been unthinkable.
That is why many Germans are rightly grateful to him to this day.
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Gorbachev in 1991
Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko / AP
I asked the Moscow office manager of SPIEGEL,
Christian Esch
, how the Russians see their former head of state today.
He says: “The Russians' view of Gorbachev has not become milder over the years, rather it has become more severe.
You associate it with the
collapse of the Soviet Union
.
Everything positive that perestroika once stood for - opening to the west, opening to the market economy, opening of the archives - has either been forgotten or revalued.
In polls, Gorbachev ends up as a historical figure far behind
Stalin, Lenin or Brezhnev
.
Liberal city dwellers look at him with more sympathy.
And they see in his private life in particular an alternative to
Vladimir Putin's
cocky but loveless existence.
Currently, a much-noticed play in Moscow celebrates the great love of Mikhail Gorbachev and his late
wife Raisa
- played by two of Russia's greatest actors,
Yevgeny Mironov
and
Chulpan Khamatova
.
Gorbachev himself, theater lover and amateur actor, is said to have enjoyed the performance. "
With this in mind: happy birthday!
The latest news from the night
Trump secretly had himself vaccinated against Corona:
After his Covid 19 illness, Donald Trump boasted of his immunity.
However, the ex-US president apparently did not want to do without a vaccination against the corona virus
Merz nominated by two CDU city associations for Bundestag candidacy:
he had already indicated interest, now two CDU city associations in the Sauerland have nominated Friedrich Merz for the Bundestag candidacy.
However, the politician does not want to comment until the next few days
Eisenmann versus Kretschmann on TV:
Less than two weeks before the state elections in Baden-Württemberg, Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann and his CDU challenger Susanne Eisenmann met for a TV duel.
It started diplomatically and ended in polemics
The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today
Winfried Kretschmann and his podcast: Election campaign with living fossils
Competition for the eco-space cooler of the future: air conditioning systems against global warming
Sociologist on first names in migrant children: "Parents want to pass on male supremacy"
Worldwide smuggling of valuable animals: parrots in plastic bottles
Continuation of the bestseller »Fiber Land«: Christian Kracht, his mother and the reactor accident of their lives
I wish you a good start to the day.
Your Mathieu von Rohr
