Maybritt Illner (ZDF) and her guests are already looking forward to the coming autumn. Will the delta variant of the coronavirus then spread in Germany?
While Germans are looking forward to summer, vacation and football, the spread of the delta mutation is faster than vaccinations. The German vacationers had to drive home from Portugal due to increased corona infections. Do the travel rules need to be tightened again? Last year, with the end of the holiday season, the virus also came back: What will winter 2021 be like?
Lisa Federle, pandemic officer of the Tübingen district and emergency doctor (CDU), opens the discussion at Maybritt Illner (ZDF) and appeals to the common sense of the people not to drive carelessly everywhere and to keep moderation. Why, for example, the governments are not putting pressure on UEFA for the overcrowded football matches is a mystery to her. Tilo Wagner, a journalist living near Lisbon, is hooked up and reports how the mood is currently in Portugal. Summer 2021 could be just as bad as summer 2020, when the tourism industry is down 60%. But the outbreak is demonstrably not linked to football: the suspected game in Porto turned out to be innocent, an outbreak in Lisbon as a corpus delicti. When the Delta variant came, the country was wide open and people celebrated their regained freedom. The infected were filtered out late, but the situation is not yet as dramatic as it was in February.
Political talk with Maybritt Illner (ZDF): Freedom regained should be preserved
Christian Lindner, party and parliamentary group leader of the FDP, explains to Maybritt Illner on ZDF that the joy of having regained freedom is a problem, but understandable. Nobody wants to go back to travel restrictions and lockdowns. Despite maintaining caution, freedom of movement must be maintained. This privilege has been hard earned over the past few months. Now those responsible must think about how this freedom can be maintained with targeted measures.
Manuela Schwesig, Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (SPD), even announced a summer of confidence at Maybritt Illner (ZDF). Nevertheless, with a view to the Delta variant, the trips should only take place with protection and Christian Lindner agrees: Everyone who travels to Germany should show a test. He himself refused a professional trip to London because the risk can easily be minimized digitally. The rules of the individual countries are simply too confusing, complains Manuela Schwesig. Why not a quick test everywhere and 5 days of quarantine if you come from a risk area? Of course, people are annoyed when they travel somewhere one day and the next day all the rules are different again. In order to minimize the risk, she only recommends traveling within Germany with a twinkle in her eye: especially to Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, of course.
Maybritt Illner on ZDF: After a standstill you come up against the limits of social acceptance
After the months of standstill, you come up against the limits of social acceptance, explains Christian Lindner during a political talk with Maybritt Illner on ZDF. Every do-it-yourselfer knows how to tighten a screw: after very tight comes very loose. When everything has been closed for so long, it’s no wonder that people want to get out, celebrate and live, adds Lisa Federle. So are you going to be back talking about the omega mutation in a few months? Prof. Dr. Helga Rübsamen-Schaeff, virologist, chemist and founder of the biotech company AiCuris predicts that new variants will inevitably come as long as the majority of the general population has not yet been vaccinated.
| Guests | job |
| Manuela Schwesig (SPD) | Prime Minister Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania |
| Prof. Dr. Helga Rübsamen-Schaeff | Virologist, chemist and manager |
| Dr. Lisa Federle | doctor |
| Christian Lindner (FDP) | Party and parliamentary group chairman |
| Tilo Wagner | journalist |
| Thomas Mertens | Chairman of the Standing Vaccination Commission (STIKO) |
Rübsamen-Schaeff looks to Israel, where, as in England and Portugal, infections are increasing and the first infections with the Delta virus have already arrived in Germany. As long as the incidence is stable, think quickly about what needs to be done to prevent it from escalating again. And since England almost exclusively has the Delta variant at the moment, the situation there must be particularly monitored, analyzed and evaluated, suggests Maybritt Illner (ZDF).
Compulsory vaccination or voluntary? Discussion at Maybritt Illner (ZDF)
“Everyday life for unvaccinated people has to be made more uncomfortable in order to increase the willingness to vaccinate”, quotes Maybrit Illner (ZDF), Rostock’s Lord Mayor Claus Ruhe Madsen and looks questioningly around the group. Nothing is achieved by coercion and the vaccinations should remain voluntary: We would have to seek a conversation instead of rushing ahead with threats. Lisa Federle has repeatedly advised insecure patients over the past few months and, in her opinion, there is a great lack of educational work. Manuela Schwesig explains that there is now enough vaccine that should be positively emphasized. Happy hour, so to speak: where everyone can come by and take advantage of the offer. With this vaccine, people must now be actively approached again and again.
Only Prof. Dr. Helga Rübsamen-Schaeff questions the compulsory vaccination a little more critically: After all, you have to be vaccinated against yellow fever in certain areas and in the past there was a compulsory vaccination against smallpox and measles. Christian Lindner also adds the polio vaccination to Maybritt Illner on ZDF. But at the moment there shouldn’t be a compulsory vaccination, he adds. A health and social fragile situation that must be treated with care so that the waves do not boil up again. He recalls the protests against the mask requirement, which are still simmering underground.
Christian Lindner (FDP) looks restlessly on the future at Maybritt Illner on ZDF
Vaccination for children is also such a fragile topic. Thomas Mertens, Chairman of the Standing Vaccination Commission (STIKO), is briefly recorded in an interview with Maybritt Illner (ZDF). If you look at the data now, you cannot (yet) say that the delta variant leads to an increased risk of disease: There are no studies at all in children under 12 years of age. Lisa Federle tries other suggestions here: Shouldn’t she rather rely on the ventilation systems in the schools? Shorten the summer holidays because the warm months are safer and the virus does not spread so quickly here and extend the autumn and winter holidays with the greater risk of infection?
Christian Lindner looks uneasily into the future: The responsible ministers will meet next in October! Actually, it would be necessary now to discuss what to do after the holidays, before it is too late again. He would also like people to set their priorities differently and not cancel the second vaccination appointment just to be able to go on vacation. And in autumn, to put it appropriately in football jargon, it will be decisive again in Germany. (Tina Waldeck)
