It’s Never Too Early To Say It’s Too Early

To end the latest lockdown. Covid lockdowns are just that much fun, I guess.

Spahn

German health minister says it’s too early to tell if its partial Covid lockdown will be extended – It is “too early to say” whether Germany will extend its four-week partial lockdown, according to health minister Jens Spahn.

Das wird uns den ganzen Winter beschäftigen.

Keep Wearing Those Masks, Germany

They’re working wonders. During your second lockdown “light.”

Surge

German Covid Cases in ICU Hit Record as Pandemic Intensifies – Germany has more severe Covid-19 patients than at any point since the pandemic began, underscoring the urgency facing authorities to contain the disease.

Europe’s largest economy had 2,978 people being treated for the coronavirus in intensive care facilities on Monday, exceeding the previous peak of 2,933 on April 18, according to the DIVI register of German ICU capacity.

Merkel Urges Germans to Stick to ‘Wave Breaker’ Virus Curbs.

German Of The Day: Querdenker

That means “unconventional” thinkers. Or mavericks. Or contrarians, if you prefer.

Querdenker

These include, for instance, the 20,000 protestors in Leipzig who refuse to accept the German government’s Corona party line and are energetically expressing their growing dissatisfaction with the latest lockdown “light.”

“Corona party” (Corona party line) has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?

Nach dem „Querdenker“-Chaos brannten Barrikaden.

Germany On A “Fresh High”

A fresh coronavirus high of 20,000. The Germans are still high on their last coronavirus high (thinking that their restrictions will get this under control), but still.

Corona

New cases in Germany climbed to a fresh high, while unprecedented numbers of Covid-19 patients are in intensive care in Belgium…

Germany registered a record increase in new cases, days after the government imposed the toughest restrictions since a national lockdown in the spring.

Europe’s biggest economy had 31,480 new infections in the 24 hours through Thursday morning, bringing the total to 608,611, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The figures have fluctuated wildly in recent weeks, with daily infections falling to the lowest in almost two weeks on Wednesday.

We Can Do It!

Again. I mean, we can’t do it again. But still. We will.

Merkel

The first “heavy” Corona lockdown didn’t work back in March so we’ll try a “lockdown light” now. Makes sense to me. If you ask her. But that’s only because she’s been in power since Christ was a corporal and lost all touch with reality long ago. Well, at least since 2015.

Chancellor Angela Merkel appealed to Germans to obey expansive new restrictions throughout November, holding out the prospect of more freedom in the run-up to Christmas if the second coronavirus wave is pushed back.

“If we stick it out for one month, that can be a barrier in this second wave.”

Never Forget: Europeans Would Overwhelmingly Vote for Joe Biden

And we want to be just like them.

Europe

A majority of 11,000 residents across five countries in Europe—Germany, Italy, Spain, France and Great Britain—say they are watching the U.S. presidential election closely, and are very much in favor of Biden taking the White House Tuesday. The BVA pollster group found Germans are watching the U.S. contest most carefully, with 85 percent saying they are very interested in the the November 3 outcome compared to about 70 percent in the other four nations.

Only 8 percent of Germans said they would vote for Trump if it was them casting ballots across America in four days.

Even The German Public Is Starting To Get It

On the one hand, as the Washington Post itself put it: “Germany and France announce new national lockdowns, saying they have lost control of the coronavirus.”

Corona

On the other hand, the German government, for its part, still pretends that it has the situation under control and is trying desperately to prove this to the German public by introducing ever more restrictive measures. Das Chaos ist perfekt, in other words. Everything is perfectly chaotic.

German hostility to Merkel’s coronavirus shutdown grows – Chancellor Angela Merkel and Germany’s 16 state premiers spent four hours deliberating before announcing drastic measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The question now is how the Germans will react.

 

“Germany’s Smart, Simple Formula for Fighting Its Coronavirus Spike”

Isn’t working. And won’t work (in the mid- to long term). Their smart, simple formula last March (the big lockdown) didn’t work either.

Covid

But none of your readers are interested in that. You’ve trained them well.

When it’s come to fighting the coronavirus crisis, Germany has been a model among Western nations. Under Chancellor Angela Merkel’s leadership, the country’s swift and organized initial response to the pandemic kept deaths low and quickly pushed case rates down to a controllable level. Its successes have in many ways stood as the starkest contrast to America’s scattered, disastrous response—proof that a large democracy with a federal form of government could, in fact, get a handle on the disease.

But…

PS: Always remember that everything before “but” was a lie.

If Only The United States Could Do Everything Right Too

Remember: Corona only spikes in the United States because, well, we do everything wrong.

Light

Not so in ze Europe. Take Germany, for example. They’ve done everything right so far (face masks, social distancing, strict restrictions, etc). The Germans even did a big lockdown already, just a few months back. And now, because the first lockdown worked so well and was so much fun, I guess, Germany is going to lockdown again. Only this time they refer to it as a “lockdown light.” Light as in restaurants, bars, hotels, gyms etc. will no longer have any guests and professional sports events will be held without spectators. And everybody stays home, of course. Sound vaguely familiar? It should. It is. But maybe this light lockdown will be more effective than that heavy one they did first. It’s all a question of having a positive attitude. Something Germans are world famous for.

Germany to go into circuit-break lockdown as coronavirus surges – Germany will impose an emergency month-long lockdown that includes the closure of restaurants, gyms and theatres to reverse a spike in coronavirus cases that risks overwhelming hospitals, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday.

 

German Of The Day: Gastro-Lockdown

That means gastro lockdown. You know, as in gastronomy lockdown?

Gastro

It’s coming to Germany. Wow, and this in a country that has Corona under control (if you watch American mainstream media news). Angela “we can do it” Merkel will be announcing today and making sure that – take a deep breath now – restaurants, bars, clubs discotheques, pubs, as well as theaters, opera houses, concert houses, whore houses, casinos, amusement parks, film theaters, sport clubs, betting shops, swimming pools and gyms will be closed down for a bit. For our own protection. Not necessarily for the people who work there or own them, of course, but still. It’s a start. And what a whore house and some of the others there have to do with gastronomy I’ll leave up to you.

Otherwise though, everything else can remain open. For now.

Unter anderem sollen Gastronomiebetriebe sowie Bars, Clubs, Diskotheken, Kneipen und ähnliche Einrichtungen geschlossen bleiben. Gleiches soll für Theater, Opern, Konzerthäuser, Messen, Kinos, Freizeitparks, Spielhallen, Spielbanken, Wettannahmestellen, Bordelle, Freizeit- und Amateursportbetrieb, Schwimm- und Spaßbäder und Fitnessstudios gelten.