In the fog of the pandemic
Election campaigns are harmful to health.
Because the election campaign-related farewell to the seven-day incidence as a central measure in the anti-corona fight deprives us of an important early warning system in the fourth, in the delta wave: Anyone who no longer knows today's infection situation can hardly guess what is going on tomorrow in the corona wards of the hospitals.
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Laschet, Spahn in December 2020 at the Düsseldorf vaccination center
Photo:
Andreas Rentz / Getty Images
Practical life experience, you know it: If the thermometer shows you, to your annoyance, unusually cool temperatures in August, then there is no point in throwing the thermometer away.
Instead, you'd better put on a jacket.
Wouldn't it make sense to continue to use the incidences as a guide value, but to report them separately according to vaccinated and unvaccinated?
Perdu.
Most rulers in the federal and state governments are now relying on the incidence of hospitalization - first and foremost Health Minister Jens Spahn and Union Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet.
To stay in the picture: we wait until we freeze - and then discuss the jacket issue.
With a good 30 million unvaccinated people we will be very cold in the next few months.
Including many millions who cannot or may not be vaccinated at all.
Valuable time has again been wasted over the summer in which one could have prepared this country for a fourth wave without shutdowns or lockdowns:
The apparently limitless understanding that many politicians have for vaccination junkery and vaccination refusal is less a sign of liberality than of naivety;
There is still a lack of modern ventilation systems in schools and day-care centers; instead, contamination is accepted;
the group with the currently highest incidence (over 140) are the 10 to 14 year olds, only now - much too late - the 12 to 16 year olds are being vaccinated more intensively;
It has become worryingly quiet about Corona apps and the follow-up by health authorities.
In Germany, it is no longer the grand coalition that rules, but fatalism.
It comes as it comes.
Eyes shut and go for it.
There are positive things to report from Hamburg alone. In the city-state, the so-called 2G model comes into force today, which enables far-reaching easing. Cinemas, theaters, pubs
- they can all open at will, as long as the organizers only let in vaccinated and convalescent people.
A test then no longer helps, and people who have not been vaccinated have to stay outside.
This has a double advantage: vaccinated people finally get freedom and normality back, the pressure on unvaccinated people increases.
Do you think that is unfair?
Not me.
My colleague Alexander Neubacher will also explain to you here why this is by no means unfair.
2G model against corona frustration: Great freedom Hamburg
New terror
At this point I would like to recommend that you read our cover story about the new terror in Afghanistan.
Insane warriors of God have just conquered the country, and the power of other insane warriors of God is already being challenged.
Everything indicates that the "Islamic State" is responsible for the devastating attack at Kabul airport.
The US military carried out a retaliatory strike early Saturday morning, German time.
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After the attack at Kabul airport
Photo: STRINGER / EPA
Two weeks after they came to power, writes my colleague Christoph Reuter, there were increasing signs of a loss of control among the Taliban.
Afghanistan is threatened with "a new, bloody civil war."
It was the triumph itself that catapulted the Taliban into trouble, reports Christoph: »Now the Taliban are the state.
They have to man every police station, every checkpoint on the highways, every airport, every small town, every border post with their men.
They should be everywhere, but they can't because they don't have that many fighters. "
The SPIEGEL cover story: Now the Taliban must fight IS - the new terror in Afghanistan
Maas' reparation?
In the meantime, the Bundeswehr's airlift operation has come to an end.
More than 5300 people from 45 nations have flown the soldiers out of Kabul and brought them to safety.
On Friday, the 454 emergency services (according to the Bundeswehr) returned to Germany and landed at the Wunstorf air base in Lower Saxony.
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Returning soldiers of the Bundeswehr in Lower Saxony
Photo: Martin Meissner / AP
These 454 people tried to iron out the mistakes and misjudgments of the German Afghanistan policy, as far as it was in their power. And risked their lives for it. You saved many other people. They deserve great respect and gratitude for this.
At the same time, so many remained behind that we can assume tens of thousands, including family members, who have worked in some capacity for the Germans.
The Bundeswehr is not responsible for this, but the federal government is even more responsible.
What will become of these people now?
Are those who rely on Germany abandoned in the end?
It's embarrassing.
Nobody in the government wants to say how many local workers the Bundeswehr actually saved.
My colleague Matthias Gebauer found out that the authorities don't even know exactly. Now a kind of cash drop is to be made, the Federal Government's crisis team has decided. In the hastily planned operation, many decisions were made spontaneously. The question of who Germany took with it from Kabul as a priority will be a criterion as to whether the airlift was actually a success.
Now it's the foreign minister's turn.
Heiko Maas is setting out on a trip to the neighborhood of Afghanistan on Sunday: Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Turkey, Qatar.
The goal: to explore exit routes by land for those who are still on the German evacuation lists.
In the background, German diplomats are trying to get promises from the Taliban.
Perhaps Maas and the Federal Foreign Office can make amends at least a little.
After the end of the German Afghanistan Airlift: What will happen to those left behind?
We call it: the only true campaign debate
We are facing a highly political weekend.
And you don't have to wait until Sunday for the TV triumph between Annalena Baerbock, Armin Laschet and Olaf Scholz, because the political party starts 24 hours beforehand: SPIEGEL, »t-online« and »VICE« are moderating a discussion with the CSU Chairman Markus Söder and Green chief Robert Habeck.
On Saturday evening from 8 p.m. it will be presented simultaneously on the three websites.
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And I'm sure I won't tell you a secret if I expect more exchanges, more content and more entertainment on Saturday than on Sunday.
Habeck and Söder would both have liked to become: the chancellor candidates of their parties.
Now they both fight against each other for the victory of the former rival, the former rival.
Be there!
The trailer: Söder vs. Habeck - The only true election debate
Winner of the day ...
... are the former Prime Ministers of Greece and North Macedonia,
Alexis Tsipras and Zoran Zaev
.
For their agreement in the Macedonian name dispute, they will be honored today with the
Westphalian Peace Prize in Münster
- due to the corona pandemic with a year delay.
We remember: Greece fought with its northern neighbor Macedonia for a quarter of a century because its name implied territorial claims on the northern Greek region of Macedonia - at least that is the Greek argument.
Because of the Greek blockade, EU admission negotiations could not begin and the Macedonians always had to appear internationally with the cute abbreviation »FYROM«: »Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia«.
Now the country is called North Macedonia and everything will (hopefully) be fine.
Names are just not smoke and mirrors, Goethe was wrong.
The latest news from the night
US military attacks IS offshoot in Afghanistan:
As announced by US President Biden, the US military has carried out a retaliation for the terror at Kabul airport.
Current corona numbers:
The Robert Koch Institute reports more than 10,000 new infections within one day.
The nationwide incidence continues to rise.
Bahn
boss Lutz attacks GDL boss Weselsky:
In the wage conflict at Deutsche Bahn, it gets personal.
The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today
Catching up the Social Democrats: This man is behind the Scholz campaign
Laschet's politics of the order: Is that still Rhenish generosity or already tricky?
Killed Haitian President: Who commissioned the murder - a preacher, a drug dealer, corrupt politicians?
Ex-icon of the left: is Yanis Varoufakis more than a Greek one-hit wonder?
I wish you a good start to the weekend.
Your Sebastian Fischer