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Health Minister Jens Spahn actually communicated a comprehensible decision on Monday: that the vaccinations should be interrupted for a few days until possible concerns about side effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine have been confirmed or resolved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
Of course, it was his responsibility to announce the suspension.
And yet it was fundamentally wrong to let him do this.
It was irresponsible of Chancellor Angela Merkel to entrust the most far-reaching decision to fight the pandemic since vaccines were approved last year to a minister who cannot do anything right at the moment.
Which is badly politically damaged.
Above all, he gambled away the currency he kept talking about: trust.
Angela Merkel should have stepped in front of the cameras in the Chancellery and explained to people what is happening now and in the coming days.
That might not have been their responsibility, but it would have been their job.
This decision is too serious for the people in the country, it will continue to have an impact in its direct and indirect consequences for too long.
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The Chancellor is currently failing communicatively in this crisis.
She was good at explaining the lockdown at the start of the pandemic and its necessity.
After all, she still tried her best to illustrate the new version of the lockdown from November and its various stages.
She was good at explaining mathematical models and calculations.
She was good at asking people to persevere.
But now, of all times, when many people are in danger of losing hope, she is boomingly silent.
She has to announce decisions like the one on AstraZeneca and nobody else. She still has the remaining authority to prevent a final loss of confidence in politics.
We are at a dangerous tipping point.
This can be seen from the fact that the reactions to the suspension of vaccinations - i.e. to a comprehensible, scientifically justified step - are clear and unanimous, namely horror, sarcasm, resignation, despair.
Angela Merkel finally has to explain more to people.
Ms. Merkel, talk to us!
It would be appropriate to convene a special session of the Bundestag on Friday in order to issue a government statement on Thursday after whatever decision by the EMA.
Hiding behind science no longer works.
Science has become political through the crisis.
But apparently it is difficult for the scientist Merkel to accept that.