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Germany had elections at the end of September, and I feel that this is the main reason for the catastrophy that is unfolding now. It has prevented the ruling pa
by est31 5y ago
Germany had elections at the end of September, and I feel that this is the main reason for the catastrophy that is unfolding now. It has prevented the ruling parties from imposing stricter vaccination requirements more early on. They could have easily required everyone to be vaccinated by November first, and this current situation would have been spared. Now the government still has to do it, but they need to rush it, and they impose unrealistic goals like 30 million vaccinations until christmas.
After Macron's speech in July to put vaccination requirements for the medical industry, there was a major surge to the vaccination centers. Meanwhile Germany was in pre election mood.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/daily-covid-vaccination-doses-per-capita?country=FRA~DEU https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/daily-covid-vaccination-d...
You can see the effect of Macon's speech clearly on this graph: it led to a major surge in per-day vaccinations in mid July 2021 while Germany stayed in steep decline, and the "corona is over" mentality spread. Germany has reduced its distance to France in the last few weeks, but France still has more vaccinations than us, and it's far away from european leaders like Portugal.
At the start of covid, everyone in europe admired Germany for its good covid response. They flew ICU patients from Italy to Germany as the italian hospitals were way beyond their capacity. Now we might have to fly Germans the other way.
Yes, you can say that there has barely been public support for vaccination requirements up until the start of the current wave. And indeed it's been quite unpopular in the autumn. But if politicians had been more courageously trying to sell vaccination requirements, maybe it'd have worked out.
- novaRom 5y agoThis current wave moves from the east to the west. In fact, Germany has probably peaked, we have 4 days in a row of declining number of infections. France is at the beginning of the next wave, their number of today's infections is approaching German numbers. source: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/france/ https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/france/
- est31 5y agoNote that German infrastructure is at its limits in terms of how many tests can be done or whether the health office can track down the people a known covid case has been in contact with. Due to the sheer size of the wave, the percentage of unknown covid cases has increased. source (German): https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/rki-zahlen-corona-125.html https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/rki-zahlen-corona-125.html But yes, there is a strong west/east and north/south gradient in terms of incidence.
- ascar 5y agoI'm not so sure how valid the argument about test capacity limits and underreporting is. While laboratories for PCR tests might be above capacity the 2G+ requirement (recovered or vaccinated AND tested) must have increased quick antigen tests dramatically, which also get registered and positive tests reported. E.g. to enter a public pool I had to get tested and they had a test tent right next to the entrance. The week before I could just enter with my vaccination certificate. Many people have to get tested more extensively now for work or travel. So I would be very surprised if the test coverage hasn't actually increased and declining numbers with more tests certainly looks like a good sign.
- dham 5y agoEveryone will get this virus. Countries that do good now will do bad later and countries that did bad now we do good later. It's all inevitable. All you can do is take it on the chin or delay it. Every country has predetermined number based on their population demographics and health, that they will hit and there's no thing we can do about it.
- chinathrow 5y agoNothing we can do about it? Vaccines work.
- dham 5y agoYes they do. But total deaths will always be the same over x amount is time. For instance instead of a 5 year old just getting COVID and never worrying about it again we delay it so they get it when there 80 and die from it. We’ll never have a good enough vaccine. We’ll cure most cancers before this thing. Lol History will show that the only right choice was to let this thing rip. Come to this thread in 10 - 20 years. Unless an actually deadly virus hasn’t wiped us out by the
- chinathrow 5y ago> But total deaths will always be the same over x amount is time. Can you elaborate? That does not make sense to me.
- daddylongstroke 5y agoThe wisest words on this thread that I've seen. Unfortunately, the vaccines only reduce absolute risk in a small elderly population (60+), for everyone else, its a risk/reward that doesn't make sense. Unfortunately, not many understand that often doing nothing is best.
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