You know these people from airplanes, they would certainly say pilots themselves.

Less than a second after the plane has stopped, they have unfastened their seat belts, grabbed their bag from the overhead compartment and are standing in the aisle, ready to disembark.

They sometimes stand there for a few long minutes, but that doesn't seem to bother them: the main thing is that they have freed themselves from the tight set of rules that made them chained to herd cattle for a few hours of flight.

Careful, not afraid

Jorg Thomann

Editor in the “Life” section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

  • Follow I follow

You see these people in the supermarket now.

Corona is still there, but the mask requirement is gone - and so are your masks.

In the first few days after the easing, around one in ten people in the shops on my street presented their uncovered face: young women, older men, and now and then a senior couple where he was still wearing a mask and she was no longer wearing it.

Our author Sabine Meier has also freed herself from this.

The only people who are still consistently seen wearing mouth and nose protection are the people behind the cash register, and that should remain the case: they are not yet so free, they have to remain seated.

And cannot afford to be infected at work.

I still wear a mask too, of course.

I want to travel with my family for the Easter holidays and visit elderly relatives and I don't want to end up in quarantine or lay an omicron egg in the nest of others instead.

I remain cautious but am no longer afraid.

I probably know more people who had Corona than people who didn't, and most of them got off lightly because they were boosted.

I know that's not settled.

But also that you cannot protect yourself from all dangers.

So I think it's right to try it out with personal responsibility.

A saleswoman is standing in the drugstore, the mask under her chin and smiling.

If a customer wants this, she will certainly pull the mask over her face: grown people will be able to negotiate things like that with each other.

I don't know how long I'll be wearing the mask after the holidays.

But one thing is clear: if the incidences go down, more and more masks will fall.

Will the remaining mask wearers nod to each other like joggers who meet on a lonely route?

I hope that everyone will relax a little when the mask requirement ends.

But there are first films of lateral thinkers on the Internet who are upset because in some places masks are still required by house rules or people wear them voluntarily;

To their chagrin, they can no longer blame the government for this.

The freedom to continue to protect oneself must also be endured.