D.he trust of Germans in the work of the federal government is falling. And that is increasingly becoming a problem in fighting pandemics. At “Anne Will” the guests discussed how this trust can be regained.
Cornelia Betsch has been collecting data on the trust of Germans since last year. The professor for health communication reports: “Every strategy performed better than the current one.”
Left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht is also calling for a change in strategy. The rigid orientation to incidence values is wrong, because countries with higher incidences than Germany have lower death rates.
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD) is bothered by the vaccine procurement. The problem cannot be “swept under the carpet”. When ordering the vaccine, the journalist Georg Mascolo is certain: “What is on the way in Brussels and what is not on the way, all Member States knew.”
Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn continues to stick to his line in the program that vaccine could not have been obtained faster with more money. There is a contract between the EU and Biontech / Pfizer mainly because of his ministry. And the head of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group explains what, astonishingly, he has learned from the pandemic.
The evening’s trust problem
Betsch reports that the Germans’ trust in the government is falling. “We are currently at 40 percent,” says the psychologist. In March of last year it was 60 percent.
The problem is that especially the supporters of the measures no longer have confidence in the government. For the first time, there was a loss of confidence in the bans on accommodation that were imposed in some federal states last year.
“It can hardly be avoided that there is a certain amount of fatigue,” says Spahn. For the Federal Minister of Health, falling trust is apparently a natural law and not a consequence of his own actions.
Perhaps that is also the reason why the Federal Minister of Health only lets himself in for a one-on-one conversation that evening – and is only exposed to the moderator’s questions and not to the arguments of other talk guests.
In doing so, he also circumvents the result from Betsch’s study. “At the moment it looks a bit like any strategy is better,” reports the psychologist from her study. It therefore needs a “motivational push”. Uniform and simple measures are important.
The question of numbers in the program
The Union parliamentary group leader then demonstrated in the Bundestag how trust can be gambled away. “Now the question is: how long do we have to continue the measures? Is it enough when we are 50? ”Says Ralph Brinkhaus – and does not answer his own question. The lockdown should continue until “the numbers are really down”.
“To where?” The moderator wants to know. “Stable under 50, better stable under 35,” says Brinkhaus. However, the member of the Bundestag does not explain what happens from what value. Rather, it seems as if there is always a new value for him when a target is reached, which must first be achieved in order to grant freedom. One perspective looks different.
But Schwesig demands that. She wants “a perspective plan” next Wednesday in the Prime Minister’s Conference. With an incidence of 100 schools, for example, there could be alternating classes.
For certain achieved values, easing would have to be established. Wagenknecht, on the other hand, annoys the fact that there are no reliable figures for certain industries – but they still have to close. “You can’t go on like this if we don’t really want to drive millions of people into ruin,” says the left-wing politician.
The home improvement quote of the evening
“Every do-it-yourselfer knows that even with a screw that is really tight, it comes loose at some point,” says Mascolo. The journalist thinks it is “an illusion that the regulation just has to be made precise enough”. It is crucial that people adhere to distance and hygiene rules. The lockdown is – as described by the WHO – “always a surrender” and not necessary if rules are observed.
Wagenknecht sees it differently and cites high numbers of infections in border areas. “In Saxony it can be proven that there were the many commuters from the Czech Republic who worked in the Saxon nursing homes,” says the member of the Bundestag, “that just shows that most people did not die because of indiscipline, but because of a lack of staff, because of cost savings, because of privatization. “
She is bothered by the rigid orientation towards incidence values. These are low in Germany, but proportionally more people died than in Italy or Sweden. Data from the Johns Hopkins University show that in early to mid-January Germany had a death toll of one million people above the USA.
Sweden was only briefly over Germany during this period, is now about the same. Schwesig contradicts. Germany has a high proportion of older people who could become infected. Here the incidences are decisive. “That is precisely why Germany has to be particularly careful,” says the SPD politician.
The most worrying statements of the evening
The Federal Minister of Health who was involved tried again to justify the missing vaccines. The order by the EU was correct.
“I claim that there is a contract with Biontech / Pfizer, among other things, because we have put so vehemently pressure on the Federal Ministry of Health over and over again,” says Spahn.
Apparently the CDU politician thinks that the EU would not have bought the most promising of all vaccines without him. A statement that reveals either a worrying exaggeration of one’s own actions or an – equally worrying – lack of plan on the part of the EU institutions.
At least as worrying is what Brinkhaus apparently “learned” from the corona pandemic. For example, “that public administrations do not have the flexibility, do not have the procedures to handle procurement processes in an uncomplicated and unbureaucratic manner”.
Perhaps more vaccine would have come to Germany had Brinkhaus had this experience earlier. A visit to a Berlin residents’ registration office or applying for November aid – which had not yet been paid out in February – would have been enough.
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source https://pledgetimes.com/talk-show-anne-will-on-corona-you-cant-go-on-like-this-now-welt/
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