Fighting For Naked Survival Was Much More Invigorating

Like their grandparents or great-grandparents in the 1940s did, say.

Berlin

I doubt anybody complained much back then about being exhausted. But times change and people become more snowflakey and spending the day online or watching TV can be a real, I dunno, Belastung (burden) or something. It just doesn’t have that punch that real survival problems have, I guess. So let’s complain a little louder and see what’s on TV.

‘People are exhausted’: Germans grow weary of endless lockdown – Berliners are impatient for vaccines and the country is poised to tighten restrictions as the third wave hits.

“I’m really tired of it. Winter is always hard but now with the lockdown we don’t have anything to do, so it’s been awful.”

 

Angela Merkel Isn’t Quite Finished With Her Party Yet

Or with her country, for that matter. But it won’t be much longer.

CDU

Merkel’s Conservatives Mired in Scandal and Incompetence…

The Union has been in turmoil ever since it became known that to conservative lawmakers are thought to have enriched themselves with business deals involving medical protective equipment – at a time when workers across the country were fearful of losing their jobs, when the self-employed were facing ruin and when doctors and nurses were risking their health. Political representatives benefitting from a crisis that has gripped the entire country is not a good look…

A majority of the population, though, might be inclined to overlook such missteps if things were actually working. If people had the feeling that the government was doing its job protecting the population from the virus and ably leading the country through the pandemic. But that is not the case.

Die Union rutscht in einer Umfrage um vier Prozentpunkte ab und hat den positiven Effekt der Corona-Krise wieder verspielt. In der Kanzlerfrage läge Laschet hinter Grünen-Politiker Habeck – aber vor einem anderen direkten Konkurrenten.

Number Of German Covid Cases Growing

“Exponentially.” I know, the government says, we’ll stop using the little vaccine we still have. That ought to help.

Covid

Oddly, at this point, I have a feeling it might actually help. Just go with the herd immunity thing and get it over with, Germany.

COVID: German cases are growing ‘exponentially’ again – A leading expert has warned an easing of restrictions has led Germany to the brink of a third wave. Intensive care doctors warn that partial lockdown measures must be put back in place.

“We are exactly on the flank of the third wave. That can no longer be disputed. And, at this point, we have eased the restrictions and that is speeding up the exponential growth.”

 

There Are Consequences?

Even in Merkel’s Germany?

CDU

I doubt it. It just looks that way at first glance. Nothing ever really changes here.

Impatience at a four-month lockdown and a glacial Covid-19 vaccine rollout have begun to eat away at popular support for German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her conservatives months before a general election.

The party suffered a blow on Sunday, recording one of its worst-ever defeats at regional elections in two populous states in Germany’s affluent south, according to preliminary results.

Self-Sufficient?

That’s pure nationalism! And you call yourselves good Europeans. All day long.

Self

Germany seeks to be vaccine self-sufficient by next year – From 2022, Germany should be able to produce enough of its own vaccines to inoculate the whole population in the case of a pandemic, a top official said on Saturday.

Vaccination commissioner Christoph Krupp told newspapers of the Funke Media Group that, by May, a government task force would put forward a concept to achieve the goal of setting up a state-guaranteed system for vaccine production.

Europe, That’s What Went Wrong

Germany’s COVID management: World wonders what’s gone wrong – A year ago, Germany was effusively praised for its coronavirus response. Nobody would think to do that now. If anything, the international view today is a mixture of astonishment and schadenfreude.

Germany

As reported earlier… “Germany is the architect of the European failure because Germany and Merkel were behind pushing for the European process that was a failure from the beginning.”

Europe “ought” to work. But it doesn’t. Then the real world bites back.

We’re From The Berlin City Government

The “red-red-green” city government. And we’re here to help.

Control

A disaster foretold – After a year, Berlin’s experiment with rent control is a failure. Rents may be down, but so is the supply of homes.

”I WORRY ABOUT Berlin,” says Rolf Buch, a born and bred Rhinelander. The chief executive of Vonovia, Europe’s biggest residential-property firm, thinks that the city’s policy of capping rents has achieved very little good, but caused severe collateral damage. Even if the federal Constitutional Court declares the rent cap unconstitutional in the next few months, as many expect it to do, Berlin will not go back to the status quo ante. Protests are here to stay, Mr Buch reckons.

 

Nice Europeans

Come in last.

Nice

Germany should have led the world at handling the pandemic. But experts slam Merkel’s vaccine response as a disaster.

“Germany is the architect of the European failure because Germany and Merkel were behind pushing for the European process that was a failure from the beginning,” Julian Reichelt, the managing editor of Germany’s largest selling tabloid newspaper Bild, told CNN.

“She wanted to make it all about Europe and her being a great European,” he says.

Unhappy?

Who cares? You didn’t vote for me. As a matter of fact, nobody did. Other than non-elected officials like me, that is.

Unhappy

You can’t fire me. And I don’t quit. I’m not a quiter. I’m a loser maybe, but I’ll quit when I decide to, thank you.

Germans unhappy with EU’s handling of vaccine scheme – Roughly half of Germans believe the EU has handled the coronavirus vaccine rollout badly, according to an opinion poll. It comes as separate research finds a majority want an end to the country’s lockdown…

The United Kingdom has given at least one jab to 31% of its population, while Germany has so far at least partially vaccinated 7.63% of its population (that actually means more like 3.5, of course), according to figures compiled by Our World In Data.

That is marginally above the EU average of 7.60 people for every 100.

Germany Extends Coronavirus Lockdown To The Year 2525

Where everything you think, do, and say, is in the pill you took today…

2525

Germany’s national government and states are set to extend the COVID-19 lockdown by three weeks, to March 28…

According to the draft text, up to five adults from two households would be allowed to gather from March 8, with up to 10 adults allowed in areas with low infection rates. Under current rules, each household can only socialize with one other person.

The German government is also expected to appeal to citizens to avoid domestic and foreign travel over the Easter period.

Current lockdown measures have been credited with helping bring down daily new infection numbers.

However, experts last week warned that the declining infection rate had stabilized and even started climbing slightly, with growing concerns about the spread of new virus variants.

The number of coronavirus cases in Germany went up by 3,943 to 2,451,011, according to figures released early on Monday by the country’s Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases. COVID-linked fatalities went up by 358, to 70,463 in total.