The start of a new year usually heralds fresh plans: vacations, trips, family gatherings, invitations. There is a sense of new beginnings. All the more so when the year before was so dominated by the coronavirus pandemic. Didn't the politicians promise us that everything would be better in 2021 when everyone was vaccinated?
It is unfortunate that they did not make clear that things would not happen so fast. Yes, OK, the German health minister did say that things would be a bit "bumpy" initially. But, at the same time, vaccination centers were constructed across Germany with a lot of public fanfare. Doctors were recruited to carry out the vaccinations, retired medics were brought back into active service and vaccination procedures were rehearsed with the help of thousands of extras. That aroused expectations. And those expectations have been disappointed.
Honesty and transparency have come too late
In the wake of Monday's so-called vaccination summit with vaccine manufacturers, the government has finally conceded what many people had already begun to suspect. It is going to take a very long time before everyone who actually wants to be vaccinated can be vaccinated. That will not be possible until the end of September, according to the latest information. And the chancellor has warned that miracles won't happen.
That kind of honesty would have been appreciated a little sooner. But the lack of transparency and straight talking are not the only shortfalls of Germany's COVID-19 policies. Vaccination program management was often catastrophic in the first few weeks. Now that care home residents have been vaccinated — an understandable priority —, it is at last the turn of those aged 80 and over to be offered the jab. For this group of the population, in particular, vaccination means more than just an end to the isolation. It is a matter of life or death.
Coronavirus vaccination: a postcode lottery
But Germany is a federal state, and your chance of getting a jab depends on where you live. Each individual state is in charge of organizing its own vaccination program. That means that while one state might send letters informing people about their vaccination appointments, another requires you to have sufficient internet savvy to make an online registration, or end up hanging on the telephone in endless hotline queues.
A national vaccination plan is now being proposed to simplify the procedure and make it more transparent. That is also something that could have been done months ago.
And, of course, it does not alter the fact that vaccines remain in short supply. This is not likely to change in Germany before the end of March at the earliest. Ahead of the vaccination summit, politicians were thinking out loud about the possibility of forcing companies to produce more vaccines. But the manufacturers have poured cold water on that idea. Manufacturing vaccines is so complicated and time-consuming that ramping up production takes many months.
Lockdown without long-term prospects
And when it comes to the lockdown, politicians need to rapidly come up with more coherent plans that extend beyond the next four weeks. What does the future hold for schools and for people in the cultural sector, for stores and for companies? Politicians are creating a sense of insecurity by setting one new deadline after the other. People feel ground down by the inability to make any plans. They need real prospects.
The end of the coronavirus restrictions need to be tied to concrete figures — to the number of new infections per 100,000 people within seven days. There is no point in setting impossible deadlines like February 14 — a deadline that will only end up being extended. The state of Lower Saxony has devised a strategy that would allow an easing of restrictions according to a tier system based on the number of cases in the area. A plan like that would motivate people to do their bit to keep figures down, and it would awaken expectations that could be achieved collectively.
Politicians must take care that they do not lose the trust of the people. According to the latest polls, only 50% of those canvassed said they thought that Germany was handling the coronavirus pandemic well. More honesty and courage are needed from our leaders. It is high time to confront people with frustrating truths. We would be prepared to accept the situation, if politicians had a plan that we could relate to — a plan that showed us the way ahead. Hope arises when there is light at the end of the tunnel. At the moment, that light is very dim and the tunnel is still very long. Anyone telling you anything different is making promises that cannot be kept.
This article has been adapted from German.