From the first few weeks of the corona pandemic comes the now popular saying that we would one day have to forgive each other a lot.
Since then, many suspicions have condensed into certainties, such as the one that the virus cannot be made to disappear again.
Humanity must learn to live with him.
In theory, such an adjustment process is no more new than are the obstacles that arise along the way. Conspiracy theories, the spread of misleading information, popular resistance to hygiene regulations and vaccination strategies are not phenomena that come out of the blue to societies, politicians and scientists. Rather, they are constants in the history of the disease.
But before it comes to forgiveness, it would be good if those who have been responsible for the pandemic policy for more than a year and a half explained to the citizens much more of what is going on. So it was certainly a gigantic achievement to mobilize so much vaccine within a short space of time that every adult could have been vaccinated at least once. Now, however, vaccination doses are reaching their expiry date and may have to be destroyed because the vaccination campaign is still being badly managed and officials often know what is not possible and not what would be possible if they only wanted to.
At the same time, entire countries in poorer regions of the world are begging for vaccines. Should the Chinese or Russian vaccine be good enough for Africans and Latin Americans, while Germany is letting the vaccine expire? If it had been up to Markus Söder (CSU) and Manuela Schwesig (SPD), millions of Bavarians, Mecklenburgers and Western Pomerania would have long since been vaccinated with Sputnik V, which has a comparatively low protective effect. The Russian miracle drug has not yet been approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) - and not “for purely ideological reasons,” as Söder once said, but because one day one would not have to forgive him or others much.