Germany faces grim COVID-19 milestone with leadership in flux
ESCHWEILER, GERMANY» As Germany inches toward the mark of 100,000 deaths from COVID-19, the country’s leader-in-waiting announced plans Wednesday to create an expert team at the heart of the next government to provide daily scientific advice on tackling the pandemic.
Olaf Scholz of the centerleft Social Democrats announced the measure, along with the creation of a standing emergency committee, at the start of a news conference laying out the deal his party and two others have agreed to form a new government.
“Sadly, the coronavirus still hasn’t been beaten,” Scholz said. “Every day we see new records as far as the number of infections are concerned.”
German officials — from outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel to state governors and the three parties now poised for power — have been criticized for failing to take decisive steps to flatten the curve of infections during the transition period since September’s nation election.
Doctors and virologists have been warning for months that Germany faces a surge in new cases that could overwhelm its health care system, even as senior politicians dangled the prospect of further lifting pandemic restrictions.
“Nobody had the guts to take the lead and announce unpopular measures,” said Uwe Janssens, who heads the intensive care department at the St. Antonius hospital in Eschweiler, west of Cologne.
“This lack of leadership is the reason we are here now,” he said.
Doctors such as Janssens are bracing for an influx of coronavirus patients as confirmed cases hit fresh daily highs that experts say are being fueled by vaccine skeptics.
Resistance to getting the shot — including the one developed by German company Biontech together with U.S. partner Pfizer — remains strong among a sizeable minority of the country. Vaccination rates have stalled at 68% of the population, far short of the 75% or higher that the government had aimed for.
“We’ve increasingly got younger people in intensive care,” Janssens said. “The amount of time they’re treated is significantly longer, and it blocks intensive care beds for a longer period.”
Older people who got vaccinated early in 2021 also are seeing their immunity wear off, making them vulnerable to serious illness again, he said. Echoing problems seen during the initial vaccine rollout, authorities have struggled to meet demand for boosters even as they tried to encourage holdouts to get their first shot.
Some German politicians are suggesting it’s time to consider a vaccine mandate, either for specific professions or for the population as a whole. Austria took that step last week, announcing COVID-19 shots will become compulsory for all starting in February.