Dhis weekend should be: Freedom Day, the day when the masks come off – or not. In view of the increasing number of corona infections, almost all federal states have decided against easing and for transitional rules until the beginning of April. But the pandemic cannot be ended by a date. It is the properties of the virus, of each new variant, and our ability to counter them that are used to measure freedom. These are the parameters that determine whether public health is at risk and health systems are overwhelmed. The question you have to ask yourself on the occasion of the supposed Freedom Day is: Are we sufficiently armed against the virus?
The answer usually comes from modelers. But they keep a low profile. Too many variables, too many uncertainties. How will people behave? Which measure applies where? Who was vaccinated and when? Because the vaccination protection dwindles with increasing age and the time since the last vaccination. “Sometimes after six to nine weeks you no longer have ninety percent, but only around fifty percent protection against infection,” says Christoph Spinner, infectiologist at the University Hospital on the Right of the Isar in Munich.