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fromGeorg Anastasiadis
shut down
After failing to order vaccines, one could have expected some remorse from the EU. Instead, action is now being taken against Biontech. A comment.
Munich – The slightly increasing virus incidence is a reminder that the search for the right balance between lockdown and relaxation continues to be like dancing with the tiger. Regardless of whether it was the cold spell in February, the fatigue of the population, the progression of the mutations or everything together that caused the increase: we have to stay on our guard. But there is also reason to be optimistic – the encouraging news from Biontech shows that there is a way back to normal. The vaccine is highly effective and people who are vaccinated do not seem to pass the virus on. Israel is getting things going again at a fast pace.
All the more annoying that the failure of the EU and those responsible at national level to procure vaccines will keep us Europeans locked down longer than necessary. The summit, however, is when the authority headed by EU boss Ursula von der Leyen now pretends that Biontech’s alleged exorbitant prices are to blame for the fact that many old people in Europe still have to die of Covid. In any case, this is exactly the subtext of the piercings from Brussels that appeared in the German press. Biontech boss Ugur Sahin has vehemently rejected the allegations. The bucking game continues: The SPD points to the Union, Berlin points to Brussels, Brussels points to Biontech. The only thing that works in the deepest crisis since the war is the marshalling yard for responsibility.
Corona in Germany: Lost hope in the ability of those responsible in Brussels to learn
Once again, the EU leader shows that she is the wrong person in Europe’s most important office. Instead of simply admitting that their commission gambled away, that due to its bureaucratic structure, it might not have been able to act adequately in a historical emergency, it leaves the entrepreneur, of all people, whose inquisitive mind frees the world from a scourge to assign some responsibility to the sluggish vaccination progress. Yes, there is new hope thanks to Biontech. In contrast, any hope that those responsible in Brussels will be able to learn seems in vain. The EU leader recently spoke of the European moment of the moon landing. This is exactly where many citizens want them to go.
A comment by Merkur editor-in-chief Georg Anastasiadis
