It is easy these days to point the finger at indecisive and insecure politicians, but more than ever, every individual counts in fighting the corona pandemic.
The queues in front of the places where vaccinations are possible show that the population is by far not just stubborn opponents of vaccinations, but that the vast majority attach great importance to vaccination protection and take all sorts of hardships to refresh themselves.
The fact that Christmas parties are canceled in a row and restaurants are becoming increasingly empty is no less evidence of risk-conscious behavior.
Everyone should also think twice about visiting the Christmas markets, which are now open everywhere, at least in the evening when the crowd increases.
After all, it doesn't help to keep pointing with the finger at those who, with their refusal to vaccinate, have played a large part in making the fourth wave so bad.
Everyone must have an interest in protecting themselves and not inadvertently passing viruses on to others.
To pretend normality that doesn't exist
Another question is how to deal with the recent economic victims of the pandemic. Innkeepers, operators of bratwurst stalls at Christmas markets - none of them were guilty of anything, so they have to be helped somehow to make ends meet if their sales fail. This is just as much a task for the public sector as it is to rapidly increase vaccination capacities.
Perhaps it would have been wiser to completely cancel the Christmas markets in Hesse. A visit there lives from being close by, and it's not easy to drink mulled wine or eat a bratwurst with a mask on your face; Anyone who has a mask requirement on these markets is fooling themselves. A rejection would have been another clear signal of how serious the situation is. However, state politicians could not bring themselves to do this, and only in a few places were local politicians brave enough to make this decision.
In the next few weeks, the booth towns in the city centers pretend a normality that, with the best will in the world, does not exist this autumn.
The next debate will be about how to prevent larger gatherings of people on New Year's Eve, for example on the banks of the Rhine and Main and on the bridges over these rivers.
Hopefully the politicians will be more decisive in this.