A ritual that was hoped to be overcome is back: the Corona summit.
How could that happen?
Thanks to the election, politics lost sight of the pandemic, comments Sebastian Horsch.
Today there is another ritual that many had hoped for behind us.
The Prime Ministers are meeting with the Chancellor to master a corona situation, which, despite effective vaccines, may be more threatening than ever.
After two years of pandemic, the country rubs its eyes: How did that happen?
Corona summit: Politicians lost sight of the virus through the election
A question to which there are several answers.
One of them is certain: Because politics lost sight of the virus in the year of the federal election.
Because what is surprising about the current situation is at most the enormous dynamism that even some rather cautious actors in the healthcare sector did not expect.
Scientists had already clearly shown in summer that the high number of unvaccinated older people would pose a huge problem for clinics in winter.
The same goes for the need for extensive booster vaccinations.
But hardly anyone wanted to hear all that back then, says Jens Spahn today.
For the then elected and still managing Minister of Health, a revealing statement.
It shows how much the political campaigners have relied on that everything will go well in the end.
Corona in Germany: A crisis team would be important - the fact that it doesn't exist fits into the picture
But it is not.
The intensive care units fear collapse.
Nevertheless, fundamental legal debates on the epidemic situation are still being held in Berlin and the (probably) future Chancellor Olaf Scholz has announced that he does not want to be rushed when it comes to the question of compulsory vaccination in nursing homes.
This clumsiness shows how important a coordinating crisis team would be, which could now steer the transition between the old and the not yet formed new government.
The fact that there is no such body also fits into the picture.
Sebastian Horsch
