This Monday it will be twelve months since vaccinations against the coronavirus started in Germany and thus also in the Rhine-Main area.
The first to be vaccinated on December 27, 2020 were a nurse at the Frankfurt University Hospital and an employee of the Hufeland-Haus retirement home in Frankfurt-Seckbach.
The vaccination doses had been eagerly awaited.
The joy about the deliveries was great, the hopes were even greater that the virus would now disappear in a few months.
It turned out differently.
The incidence figures soared again in autumn, the danger of the new Omikron variant cannot be foreseen.
Still, the past twelve months have not been twelve months of failure.
The long queues in front of the places where a booster vaccination has been offered in the past few weeks shows that the majority of people trust the vaccines to be effective.
The majority also wear a mask and try to keep their distance as much as possible.
The economy didn't collapse.
The back and forth in Corona policy is still considerable, but not as intense as in 2020.
Endless corona discourse
In short: The virus has not been defeated, it can still kill and therefore continues to demand all attention - but society has learned to deal with it, to look for the best possible path in an endless discourse in parliaments and the media and mostly to although not always to be found.
This includes correcting this path again and again if necessary, as is now becoming apparent with the compulsory vaccination.
Nobody can foresee what balance will be drawn after a further twelve months.
But it is likely that an open, constantly learning society offers the best prerequisites for putting the virus in its place.
And one day to defeat too.