Quarantine measures first on Sunday, March 22, 2020, in an effort to get the global outbreak of the respiratory disease under control.
For around three years, social distancing measures of varying degrees were in place around the world. Nevertheless, almost 7 million people died from the disease known as . In Germany, there have been 187,000 cases of people dying with or from coronavirus. The most recent coronavirus-related restrictions, which included the obligation to wear a face mask in certain establishments, ended in April 2023.
However, the infectious disease has not disappeared. On the contrary, people continue to contract the virus as it continues to evolve, but for most people, it is now less dangerous.
Many suffer from the long-term effects, known as post-COVID-19 or long COVID-19. And there has still not been a full appraisal of the pandemic in society or in politics. One person who has been criticizing this for some time now is Germany’s head of state, President .
“The people in this country are expecting us to take a thorough look at that period,” said the President recently in a round table discussion he initiated on the aftermath and lessons learned from the coronavirus pandemic.
“I think it is essential that we create transparency so that we can win back as many people as possible who doubted democracy and our institutions during the pandemic,” Steinmeier emphasized.
Many questions remain
“What was the role of politics, what was the role of scientific advice? Were widespread school closures necessary? Were restrictions on fundamental rights such as freedom of assembly unavoidable? Did the discussion we had in Germany about compulsory vaccination do more harm than good? What role did politics play, what role did scientific advice play, and what role should they play in similar situations in the future?”
Steinmeier received answers from guests from a wide variety of fields: Medicine, education, research, sport, culture, and politics. Maxi Brautmeier-Ulrich is the head of an elementary school in Paderborn in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Like many others in the panel, she spoke about the creativity that went into making digital lessons possible in the beginning. But at some point, she said, she reached the point of exhaustion.
“Children and young people suffered in particular,” said the teacher. She still sees the effects today. Trust in schools and the education system was permanently damaged. This is because families suddenly had to do a lot on their own — in addition to working.
To summarize the lessons to be learned from the experiences of the coronavirus period, the school principal made the following demand: “Basically, children need to be taken much more into account — now and always.” She said that it will not be possible to make up for the damage and the experiences that were missed out on. After the pandemic ended, she noticed that many children were suffering from language problems as a result of wearing masks for so long and consuming more digital media.
Most of those who died were 80 or above
Astrid Thiele-Jerome runs a retirement home in the district of Warendorf in North Rhine-Westphalia. She saw many people die during the worst phases of the pandemic. Almost half of the 187,000 people who died in Germany were 80 years old or older. In some cases, family members were not allowed to enter the home. This is something Thiele-Jerome still agonizes over today — even her employees couldn’t comprehend this.
“If I’m allowed into the rooms with protective clothing — with my protective suit, my mask, my visor — then why can’t the relatives?” the nursing staff asked themselves. “And then we opened the windows and let them in to say farewell.” However, this was only possible because the windows on the first floor of her retirement home go right down to the floor.
One word was used very frequently during the meeting with Steinmeier: solidarity. “It was actually incredible,” Thiele-Jerome said, recalling the solidarity of her team, who worked 12 hour shifts to care for the elderly. Steinmeier also repeatedly praised how widespread solidarity was in Germany.
At the same time, he repeatedly made it clear how important it is to him to take a critical look back. He said he believes it is very important to examine what went well and what went less well. However, it should not be forgotten that many of the measures taken at the time were based on what was known at the time. “And it was always about one thing: saving as many lives as possible. All in all, we succeeded in doing that,” he concluded.
The state of Brandenburg has set up a commission of inquiry to examine the handling of the pandemic. The committee is made up of members of parliament, municipal representatives, and experts from the scientific community.
“If we don’t come to terms with the situation, then there will be too much that is repressed,” warned Steinmeier. What is not addressed openly feeds conspiracy theories and grows mistrust. Both are poison for democracy, she argued. “Both play into the hands of populists, and we must not allow that to happen.”
This article was originally written in German.
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