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Brandenburg Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (SPD)
Photo: Martin Müller / imago images / Martin Müller
One of the mean things of the corona pandemic is: Nobody can know exactly how to do it right.
Every political decision brings advantages here and disadvantages there.
At first glance, epidemiologically sensible contact restrictions harm many parts of the economy.
This is a problem because the billions in taxes for rescue packages, vaccination doses and rapid tests have to be brought in by someone.
On the other hand, easing normally leads to higher case numbers.
As a result, more people die.
"At" Corona, not just "with".
Because the first sentence of the Basic Law speaks of the "inviolable" human dignity, this point is fundamental.
And also because it will take a long time before anyone in Germany who wants to be vaccinated is vaccinated.
Not to mention children.
Politics must always work on balancing different interests.
In the pandemic, it was decided to make the incidence value an important basis for these considerations, which part of society can be expected to do what.
Pointless tugging for hours
At their last meeting, the Prime Ministers and the Chancellor agreed on a timetable for easing the situation.
And on an emergency brake.
This should take effect when the incidences rise again.
The limit for this is 100 in the relevant resolution.
Some scientists don't like that.
This has to do with the design of the emergency brake.
In order for it to take effect at all, the incidence must exceed 100 on "three consecutive days"; only then are easings withdrawn again "from the second following working day".
The number of cases continues to increase during this time.
The pandemic is getting a little more out of hand again.
The emergency brake comes too late, they argued.
Others say: The emergency brake is the only thing that makes sense in the common paper.
Because more contagious variants of the Sars-CoV-2 pathogen are spreading more and more, the incidence is increasing anyway.
It is therefore only a matter of time before the 100 is reached again.
All other rules are
de facto
meaningless - except for the emergency brake.
In this situation, the state government of Brandenburg - formed by the SPD, CDU and the Greens - is now doing the following: It is tinkering with exactly this jointly decided brake.
In districts and urban districts, stricter measures are only planned again if the incidence value is more than 200 on at least three consecutive days.
200, not 100. No typo.
And you have to ask yourself: What is that supposed to mean?
Why do you make joint decisions if you don't stick to them later?
Sure, the Brandenburgers aren't the first.
I'm looking at you
, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg.
And they won't be the last either.
And yet the decision of the Potsdam state government shows, as if under a magnifying glass, how senseless the corona papers of the states and the federal government, which have been made after hours of turmoil, have long been.
Endure the headwind
One can debate whether to use parameters other than incidence, keyword intensive care beds.
You can possibly also settle for a higher number of cases and take a more relaxed course, as other countries in Europe are doing.
Even if you accept that more younger people will be infected.
Because the very old are now partially vaccinated, whereby Brandenburg is also more so-so.
But then you would have to say it and represent it politically.
You would have to endure the headwind from many people in this country who see things differently.
But first agreeing on something that is repeatedly not worth the paper it was printed on, and then clearing it around the back, that is dishonest.
And it is a political failure that people will remember.
An emergency brake?
Brandenburg says you even have two!
The Brandenburg state government is now claiming that the emergency brake has not been loosened at all.
Instead, you now have two of them.
If 100 is reached nationwide, stricter measures will be discussed for the whole country.
Advise by the way, do not decide.
But that's just by the way.
And when a county hits the 200 mark, stricter rules would apply there.
Formally it may be correct, that remains to be seen.
Whereby in Section 28a of the Infection Protection Act, an incidence of 50 is mentioned as the limit for “comprehensive protective measures” which allow “effective containment of the infection process to be expected”.
But the legal experts will clarify that.
What you don't have to be an expert for: Political action, as Brandenburg is exemplary here, makes people angry.
It further devalues the federal-state rounds, which are already criticized.
This will not be without consequences.
In the corona pandemic, nobody can know exactly how to do it right.
But Brandenburg shows how to get it wrong in any case.
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