They were “forced to act”, explained the Chancellor after the Bund-Länder round. But that is the problem: That such coercion is obviously necessary for politics to come to decisions. It has to be different, urgently. Almost every line of every speaker speaks that the actors agree on this: the Chancellor, two country leaders and the finance minister – they all emphasized the good cooperation in the group on Sunday morning. And it can also be read from the time: the phone only lasted a good hour, an appointment was made for 10 a.m., and shortly after 11 a.m. Angela Merkel, Michael Müller, Markus Söder and Olaf Scholz can already appear in front of the press. There is praise for the “haunting words from the federal government” – meaning Merkel’s emotional speech last Wednesday in the Bundestag. And there is praise for the group itself. They acted “very quickly and decisively,” says Berlin’s Governing Mayor Müller, “in the overall picture” it is important that the measures are shared, “and we have now succeeded again”.

Söder on lockdown decision “Must protect the sensible from the unreasonable”

At this point, an objection is appropriate. “Again,” says Müller. But when was the coronavirus round of prime ministers with the federal government ever successful in this way? In the past few weeks, after intensive preparation and a short final agreement, when has you presented uniform results and a strategy that has come about through a common understanding of the current situation and future risks? Last week, when the number of new infections was clearly not moving down, but rather up, there were voices among the country leaders who saw no need for today’s round. At the end of October, when the number of infections and scientists were clearly pointing in the direction that Germany was already in the middle of the second wave, the country round did not come up with a uniform package of measures. And in mid-October, each state government decided for itself whether the accommodation ban would be implemented and how strictly it should apply. “In the past few months we have always had rules and regulations that even one or the other minister, when asked on television, first had to check whether he had them all ready,” says Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder, explaining the advantages of today’s unified decision.

“We have developed together,” said the group. But it is to be feared that there was no learning process here, but that unity was only achieved through pressure. Pressure from science, pressure from the medical profession and every evening as confirmation of the warning: catastrophically high death and infection rates. That was apparently necessary to let 16 country leaders realize that a pandemic is not an opportunity for profiling and going it alone, but for empathy and cooperation. Today’s result of this collaboration is certainly good and correct. But it is nowhere near enough, because this pandemic cannot be defeated with a lockdown. With a lockdown, the worst damage can just be averted. It’s not a strategy, it’s the emergency brake. But what the country needs, and what some others now have ahead of us, is a strategy. Because it is already clear that the vaccination process, if it starts soon, will take a long time. Until then, you have to at least keep the virus in check and the number of infections low. How this could be achieved outside a lockdown for weeks, there are studies and voices from science, including examples from other countries.

Hard lockdown decided These measures will apply from Wednesday

German policy has not adopted any of this so far. Nowhere was proactive action taken – not for schools, not for health authorities, not for nursing homes and groups of people at risk. How can it be that the advantages of rapid tests are talked about for weeks or even months, but private individuals and care facilities cannot get them for months – except in Tübingen on the market square? The bitter thing is that such failure in a pandemic costs people their lives. It cannot be the aim to simply get through this huge crisis, to chase after the infection process with ever new reactions. The aim must be to get ahead of the wave. The goal is to know today what to do at the beginning of February if the incidence level reaches a certain level. Or in mid-February or early April. Germany itself has the scientists who calculate such models and those who daily gain new knowledge about the nature of this virus.

Worship services in lockdown churches are already working on alternatives

Politicians must use all of this expertise. It can determine the measures to be taken in response to certain infection events – clearly and without renewed debate. This is not rocket science, other countries – such as Ireland – are already doing this. Politicians have to explain to the citizens, without whose willingness and conviction nothing can be achieved in the fight against pandemics, what the strategy should look like and what they have to adapt to. Instead of dubious Christmas promises, communication at eye level. Politicians can still develop this uniform, forward-looking strategy. Hopefully the starting shot was given today.

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