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Vaccination will not be a turning point in Germany anytime soon. Before that, you must master the third wave. Four ways to get back to normal.
Expectations for the new year and the start of the vaccination campaign were high. Now everything should be different and soon it will be completely normal again before the Crown. But what actually seems possible in countries like Israel or soon also Great Britain will not happen soon.
It is clear that the necessary wave of vaccination with which the third wave can be kept small will not arrive. Which does not mean that we are at his mercy and can only wait until he dies again. Countries, cities, and even individual schools have long shown how to control the virus and thus make vacancies possible. You’re showing ways that can get us out of the Corona mess.
The test is the new vaccine!
What the vaccination campaign has not yet achieved, we can try to make up for with a maximally comprehensive testing strategy. Tests at school, tests at work, tests while shopping, before going to the hairdresser or the movies. The capabilities are there, you just have to bring them closer to the people. Low threshold, close to the citizen, flexible. The motto should be: try like there’s no tomorrow!
It is important to make use of the available options: for example, with group tests. The principle: saliva samples from a group are examined with a single PCR test. If the sample works, the group is retested individually. That saves time, effort, and last but not least money. In Switzerland the process is used more widely, in Germany so far only sporadically.
Or sewage studies. In the Netherlands, the United States or France they are already betting it. Also in Germany, researchers from Leipzig and Darmstadt are working on the implementation. But it is not uncommon for researchers’ offers to be met with skepticism and rejected with reference to the supposed “experimental stage” of the technology.
Citizens, look at these cities!
You don’t even have to look abroad to find momentum for strategies that bring success. There is, for example, Tübingen, which made protecting its ancient population its top priority when others were still arguing how, where, and who. Separate opening hours in shops, taxis for people over 60 for the price of the bus, as well as quick tests at homes for staff, residents and visitors. All this existed in Tübingen long before others followed suit. Result: the second wave practically passed by the health centers of the city.
General testing: Free rapid tests have been used across the board in Tübingen since January. The number of infections remained low. Open-air restaurants and cultural institutions such as movie theaters have been able to reopen since Tuesday. If you want to visit them or go to the hairdresser, do a quick test beforehand at one of the stations around the city. The Stuttgart state government likes it so much that it has declared Tübingen a “Crown model city”. He would like to know if the massive use of rapid tests makes further relaxation possible.
Rostock also relies on massive testing. Since the beginning of March, the city of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has been providing each student with two test kits per week. Children and adolescents take the throat swab on their own or with the help of their parents at home. When stores reopen, Mayor Claus Ruhe Madsen also relies on an app that records customers’ contact details at the push of a button.
Dare to be more pragmatic!
Tübingen, Rostock, but also other cities, opened options for action because they abandoned the given path and assumed personal responsibility. Tübingen, for example, avoided the bureaucratically laborious path through the federal government to obtain rapid tests for houses and preferred to buy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on its own. According to Mayor Boris Palmer, this saved the city four weeks of precious time.
In Neustrelitz in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, a school began issuing exams to its students in May 2020, twice a week. Other schools, such as the Don Bosco School in Rostock, followed suit and, incidentally, refuted the reservation that children and adolescents should have themselves examined is irresponsible.
The brave engagement was often followed by words of admiration. Only little has changed. The best examples found their way into the glass case as crystal goblets. In doing so, they should serve as an opportunity to meet this new challenge with pragmatism and leave off the beaten track, often cumbersome. There are many approaches to this. From applications that simplify the recording of contacts in restaurants to those that tell you where in the city there are a lot of people and where not. Data protection issues need to be clarified here. But they are always approaches to think about.
Friends, be sensible!
With all the justified criticism of Corona’s management: individuals cannot completely deviate from responsibility. Everyone can make sure that infections in their environment are avoided, that they protect themselves and others so that other people feel safe. So: keep your distance and reduce contacts. Vaccines and rapid tests will also not be able to rid us of this for the foreseeable future.
But this action will be rewarded: with meeting opportunities, with the gradual opening of shops, sports and culture and with the recovery of freedoms. It is worth staying sensible for a while longer.
