First wave went well (probably in good part to dumb luck, but also because stuff just got done and less arguing about it), this made people somewhat complacent, second and third wave has been a shitshow of not wanting to be unpopular by locking things down and thus ignoring predictions, do last-minute changes when it's too late, apologizing for getting it wrong just to immediately repeat the same pattern, keeping things in an unstable and unsustainable situation for the past few months with no long-term planning (which also means the options are worse, because options that would have required long-term preparing aren't available and the available ones are badly thought out). Picking of random "target points" without apparent consideration what those actually mean outside of being some number that was compromised on and thus is now the benchmark. Way too much political manouvering with politicians pushing for "a common approach", agreeing with everyone on one, loudly announcing it, going back to their state and doing something entirely different. This dragged-out state with constant (but in many ways meaningless for many peoples experience) changes just drags on everyone while at the same time doing a bad job at keeping covid at bay.
EDIT: Random examples: lockdown laws that fail trivial legal challenges because they were made up last minute. Almost religious clinging to the belief that kids in school aren't a relevant factor (to the point of states suppressing evidence to the contrary) which lead to too little investment into teaching infrastructure and options, making each switch between kids in schools and not unnecessary last minute and painful to implement. Unnecessarily messy signup/notification processes for vaccinations (who would have thought one might need a plan to vaccinate people at some point...). Late adjustment of financial help schemes. Nonsensical and inefficient schemes to e.g. distribute masks.
Good question. At the beginning of the pandemic, the government response was excellent (with Angela Merkel, who has a doctorate in quantum chemistry, promoting fact-based policies).
[Quick background: Germany has a political system not entirely unlike the US with a federal level and "Länder" = state level. Health (along with police, education, etc.) is delegated to the Länder.]
Towards the end of 2020, two things happened:
People developed "Coronamüdigkeit" (being sick of the restrictions), and in the run-up to the federal election in Sept 2021 (with Merkel stepping down), several prime ministers of the Länder tried to gain a higher profile (with an eye on the Bundeskanzler election later) by opening up. So, squabbling and inconsistent policy ensued, with a massive third wave happening right now.
Throw in corruption (several CDU politicians had to step down because of shady mask deals), the delayed vaccination drive, etc., and "shitshow" seems appropriate.
>People developed "Coronamüdigkeit" (being sick of the restrictions)
People developed sickness of restrictions because the restrictions were not tight enough to completely stop the spread, but tight enough to become annoying when dragged along for so many months (a year?).
So this half-assed restriction policy were we're kind of, sort of, locked down, but not really, got people annoyed.
The problem is, even if you want to tighten the measures now to wipe out the virus, you can't, because people are already burned out from the previous half-assed measures trat dragged on for so long.
> Do you mean they have the vaccine but can't give it to people? I thought we did not secure enough of them.
All of the above. Finally they are just giving it to doctors and now numbers are finally ramping up. Leave us some drinks at the opening party, Germany will be a few months late.
Simple example. Quick test on Thursday 2 weeks ago before school. Whole class negative, cool! A call on Friday from school: we have 2 positive cases, please don’t come next week. Why all the quick tests!? They bring nothing.
EDIT: Random examples: lockdown laws that fail trivial legal challenges because they were made up last minute. Almost religious clinging to the belief that kids in school aren't a relevant factor (to the point of states suppressing evidence to the contrary) which lead to too little investment into teaching infrastructure and options, making each switch between kids in schools and not unnecessary last minute and painful to implement. Unnecessarily messy signup/notification processes for vaccinations (who would have thought one might need a plan to vaccinate people at some point...). Late adjustment of financial help schemes. Nonsensical and inefficient schemes to e.g. distribute masks.