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Saturday afternoon at Aldi in Berlin-Friedrichshain.

An annoyed family man is looking for rapid corona tests.

It should be available here, the coveted material at an affordable price.

Actually.

But there is nothing in the market to suggest it.

No hint.

Nowhere.

Then, at the cash register, the redemption.

"I can give you five," the cashier whispers, almost conspiratorially.

She reaches down and puts the “hot goods” quickly and inconspicuously on the belt.

For five euros each.

This scene really happened that way.

Unfortunately not in March 2020, but in mid-March 2021 - in the 13th month of the pandemic.

It reveals how long our country's political decision-makers simply ignored one of the most urgent tasks in the fight against Covid-19 - the creation of test facilities.

Others have been testing millions of times for a long time

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As early as March 2020, it was completely undisputed that tests must be a central component in the fight against the pandemic and for gaining more freedom.

Now, a year later, we hear and read everywhere that the first large pilot projects and model tests are being launched.

While other countries - the most prominent example is Austria - have been testing millions of times for a long time, of course, we are only now beginning to set up our structures.

Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, for example, proclaims the motto “testing instead of lockdown”.

Unthinkable for us.

The failures can once again be felt most clearly in the example of schools.

I just received a frustrating letter to the editor yesterday from a school principal who explained in an almost giving up tone that he could not hope to start testing until after Easter at the earliest - and now had to explain this to all the parents and students.

For a long time, the disadvantages in particular were described

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But why is that so?

Why aren't even daycare centers and schools equipped with the tests and the corresponding concepts?

The answer is: Because nothing has been done for almost a year.

While the vaccine first had to be developed and approved, the production and approval of the tests could have started shortly after the outbreak of the pandemic - including large-scale field tests and logistical concepts.

The fact that none of this happened is due to the reluctance of the federal government and especially the Ministry of Health.

Above all, the disadvantages of the tests were described here for months.

The reliability of this instrument has been questioned again and again.

For fear that people would feel too safe, the politically responsible never seriously pushed the test option.

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There it is again, patronizing the population.

Only now that it is becoming clearer from day to day how slow it is with vaccination in this country - is the project “testing, testing, testing” pushed ahead with full force.

Vaccinating and testing are the two big challenges the governments of the world have faced over the past twelve months.

Germany is only now really tackling them both.

With a backlog that we cannot make up again.