It would be negligent if the federal and state governments did not quickly agree on the future isolation period for people infected with corona and the quarantine for contact persons.
Although there are never any certainties about the further course of the pandemic, there are enough serious calculations that more citizens will soon be infected at the same time than ever because of the speed at which the Omicron variant is spreading.
The consequences would be manifold, not only in the first league of critical infrastructure, such as in hospitals or in the police and fire department.
This time politics has to deal with the situation;
once the chaos is felt across the country, it would be too late.
The politicians are not to be envied for the task, because there are gaps in the studies.
How long do symptom-free Omikron patients remain contagious despite the booster vaccination?
How much do antigen or PCR tests say five days after the first positive result about the patient's infectivity?
Instead of certainties, there are plausibilities here too.
Only one thing is clear: every shortening of isolation also sends a signal that will be interpreted differently in the population: some will see their suspicion confirmed that the previous caution was completely exaggerated;
others will fear that the government is no longer taking the virus seriously enough.
In this respect, the debate can be linked to the great dispute about compulsory vaccination - for both camps.
In order to make it more objective, it would be desirable if the advocates of an expanded vaccination requirement in the Bundestag would soon submit their applications.
The fact that only the opponents around the FDP politician Wolfgang Kubicki have at least a draft for a long time may indicate that they are making it particularly easy for themselves.
But the other side must also have had enough time to think through their plans.
The only thing missing is the leap into the deep end of the pandemic policy.