Compulsory Vaccine Mandate

 This morning in the Bundestag....the first draft was presented to mandate the Covid vaccine to a couple of professions (namely nurses and rest-home caretakers, those in the medical field).

What happened?  Twenty folks in the FDP said no.  This presents a problem to the SPD and Greens.  If they don't get the votes....they'd have to count on the CDU or Linke Party to support this.

Where this might lead onto?  Well....getting the mandate passed through is a question mark at this point.  I don't see the CDU supporting it, and the Linke Party has had some differing opinions on how it'd work.  

Another vote?  Probably.....but you can't be sure of the remaining FDP 'yes' votes staying at the same level.  

The Congress Hall

 If you were ever stationed around Germany near Nuremberg.....you've probably heard or even visited the Congress Hall.  

There is a bit of history to it.  

Some locals hyped up the idea in the early 1930s....that Nuremberg needed an open-air theater of huge proportions.  Along came the Nazi Party, and via some sales gimmicks....they got some 'thumbs-up' from Hitler.

The design?  I'd say it's about 90-percent of what you'd see in a NFL stadium....horse-shoe shaped....on the SE part of town.  Work started around 1937, and the basic structure was mostly done by 1940, but the war business trimmed back manpower and capital.  So it's unfinished.

Size?  What you generally see is three connecting parts.  The main part is 275 by 26 meter, and around 65 meter tall.....the two connecting pieces? 24 meters by 57 meters.  Yeah....it's huge.

It is from a architecture prospective....impressive....yet unfinished.  

From 1945 on....it's just stood there.  Occasionally the state or federal government would slide some money over to do some  renovation but it's never been picked up and carried to the finish-line.

Yesterday....the city finally said 'enough' and there's some seven-year project announced, and in the range of 150-odd million Euro to wrap this up.  The odds of problems and this going up to 300-odd million?  Better than 50-percent I would wager.

Purpose and use?  An outdoor theater....more or less.  

Negativity over this?  A lot.  The historians generally see it as a Nazi memorial of sorts.  Some just want it left as it is.....useless and empty.  Tearing it down?  There was a lot of effort to make this a success....something in building construction today that is hard to find.  

The interesting thing to me is that the parking lot around the 'arena' has been used (at least prior to Covid) for local fairs/shows.  The fact there are two U-Bahn/tram stations within ten minutes walking of the arena?  There are tons of things you could use the facility....if it were ever finished.  

So around 2028....you might hear a bit over the new 'finally' completed Congress Hall....that only took around 90 years to complete.  

Threats Spiral?

 If you'd come up three years ago in Germany and said some new virus would arrive....get people extremely aggravated and frustrated....politically divide society....then trigger some folks to suggest violent outcomes/threats to be made....I would have said that's crazy.

In the past month or two....with the numbers going up weekly and various new ban rules coming into play, patience has generally run out with probably a quarter of German society.  I'd even argue that another quarter of society is growing 'tired', burned-out, and distressed.  

The idea of threatening journalists and politicians?  Both draw attention because of the positions they occupy.  Politicians are the ones engaging on ban rules, with journalists in a sales routine of the ban rules 'products'.  

I don't think the protests or demonstrations are having that much of an affect....except it gives the frustrated gal/guy a chance to mingle with like-minded folks for an hour or two.

Making the threats?  Purely a stupid idea that will end up with police taking you down to the station, and some judge having to mess with you....potentially sending you off to prison for two or three years where extra Covid ban-rules will exist over your life. 

In simple terms....Covid has made some Germans a bit crazy.  Some syndrome name to be created out of this?  I'd suggest that.  Maybe something like Paranoid Covidphrenia.

It's to the point where you could be running a bakery and have someone come in at 7 AM....without a mask, and when you politely suggested that they mask up....they go berserk and start utter profane comments about your dog or your limited intelligence.  They think anti-rule thoughts all throughout the day, and this pandemic lifestyle is ruining their peace.

Journalists in the middle of this?  You can't help but notice that there's probably 'bundles' of Covid news or Covid-chatter throughout the day on Channel One/Two (public TV).  Some folks are trained well enough now to mute the sound when they've had too much.  

As for jail reforming the threat crowd?  If you end up with several hundred positioned in prison for two years....what exactly will be the outcome when they finally emerge?  Happy and positive people....or bitter types?  It's just something you tend to wonder about. 

New Party Boss For The CDU By Friday?

 After the dismal numbers of the September election.....the party boss of the CDU Party (Merkel's group) finally stepped down (Laschet).  

In the past month or two....there's been a campaign for the selection process.  Basically three guys.

There's the hyped-up intellectual (Rottgen), the pro-Merkel clone (Braun), and the pro-business anti-Merkel anti-clone (Merz).....please note, this is my description of the three.

If you asked me within party circles....who leads now, it's probably neck and neck between Merz and Braun.  

What's it mean as the announcement occurs?  Well....the party is geared toward this guy/his agenda for the next four years.  It does not mean he's the Chancellor candidate in 2025.  Also, it's possible that the guy fumbles this badly, and gets fired within twelve months.

At this point...until the fall of 2025....the CDU is simply an opposition party to the Scholz SPD-Green-FDP coalition.  In the opposition corner?  CDU, CSU, the Linke Party (far left) and the AfD folks (far right).  It's not that great of an opposition group.

CDU in trouble with the five state election in 2022?  I would argue that they have zero traction in two of the state elections, and really need a comeback of sorts....to improve the numbers.  

To the statement that Merkel 'limped' along the party in the past two years? In some ways, she tried to bring the better 'clone' into the mix (AKK, from out of Saarbrucken).  That idea was a dismal failure, and left the party to the executive committee....who went to the carbon copy of Merkel.....picking Laschet to be the party boss and Chancellor candidate. 

In simple terms....the party needs a new boss and new enthusiasm.  

Masks

 After almost twenty months of mask requirements, I can make four observations from here in Germany:

1.  From the fifteen-odd brands that my wife and I have procured (either bought, or gotten via her place of work)....I will say that three were of extremely high quality, two were of dismal and unacceptable quality and the rest in between (acceptable).  

I bought some batch of five that simply didn't fit.  It didn't matter how you pulled the draw-string....these were made in some crappy way, with no emphasis on quality.  I bought another set of twenty-odd masks which were a decent price but were made of some inferior material.  

There just wasn't a lot of control over the mask industry, or audits done to take some masks off the market.

2.  Masks laying around parking lots.  About a month or two into forcing people to wear masks indoors....you started to notice masks laying on the ground of parking lots.  

As bad as it got in 2020....it's twice that bad now.  I probably walk through various grocery parking lots and note at least five to ten on each trip now.  

3.  Since spring of 2020....I've probably come across 20,000-odd Germans with the mask on.  Out of every ten guys that I come across....one will be wearing the mask in the wrong fashion (below the nose, ill-fitted and allowing air in, or just too loose).  On women, it's probably one out of every forty.  

Why the difference....male to female?  Unknown.  Maybe guys really don't care about the fit....it's just the wear that matters.

4.  Suspicion of long-term wear of a single mask?  Well....you'd hate to ask this.....to find that one guy out of a hundred is still wearing the same mask that he bought from six months ago.  Generally, the experts say a typical mask is made for a eight-hour shift.  For a retiree who only needs it for grocery or medical trips....one mask probably can survive a week of wear.   

5.  Finally, it's just painfully obvious that 99.9-percent of all masks....are Chinese-made.  I've even come to note various attempts to 'suggest' to you a German-product, with a German name on the package....with even a German address of the key developer/maker....but obviously have the 'made in China' note somewhere on the box.   

Booster 'Hole'?

 This morning, I read over a piece on Focus, and it's a curious (even comical) situation on this booster-hype for Covid.

Over the whole past month....hour after hour....hyped-up chatter via politicians, journalists and virus experts in Germany.  They wanted to get everyone on the 'path' to get the 3rd shot (the booster).  

So here's the thing.....between Moderna and Biontech....apparently the government (before the new SPD-Green-FDP coalition arrived)....had a regular schedule on their mind.....that you'd get your booster around the 9th to 12th month.  That means a handful of folks would get it in January, and around April through July.....the bulk of folks would get their 3rd shot.

That was the production cycle that each company signed up to.  

This new 'talk'?  Lauterbach and crew were now hitched up to the idea of a bulk situation here in December, and really taking off in January....something like a million-plus vaccinations per day.  

Well....the vaccine ain't there.  

What the companies tell the government?  An average delivery pace for December through March, and bigger bulk deliveries as you get into April/May.

The gap or missing vaccination amount?  Sixty-million doses.

What will happen here?  Just being a normal capitalist.....I'd take a guess that both Biontech and Moderna will say fine.....we can achieve one-third of the missing amount in January, and the rest in February....holding out their hand for the pay-off.  How much?  Unknown, but someone will have to find cash for this gimmick to work.

Timelines changed?  Lets be honest here....to do this massive million-plus a day....the general plan is to haul in dentists, pharmacy folks, and animal-veterinarians (on top of regular doctors) to give the shots.  

I would be guessing that something starts in late January (mostly with senior citizens) and the regular folks don't get an invite until mid-March.  

The shock by the Health Minister?  This sudden reason for surging on the booster?  It wasn't on anyone's mind three months ago.  Everyone had the idea that vax episode one (first and second shot) were a nine to twelve month thing.  The necessity of driving the bulk of the nation over the next two months for a booster?  Either there's something they aren't telling people, or the necessity seems to be over-reacted.  

Generally, I think these studies accomplished in past couple of months....saying the antibodies are going 'pretty fast' and effective nature is dismal by the sixth month.  But at the same time.....you really don't want to admit this.  Suggesting to folks that you've lost one-third of your antibodies by the 100th day....probably dissolves some confidence.  

Revision 99 to the 'plan'?  Come and gone, I would say.   

Local Covid Ban Rule Protest

 With all the hype recently about protests and demonstrations.....I saw where the city of Wiesbaden had a protest Monday evening.  

Based on news accounts.....the account goes this way....some folks (around 30)....gathered up near the shopping district just after 6 PM Monday evening.  The group quietly walked around for about 90 minutes....not yelling or screaming....just carrying candles.  

The police?  Based on several accounts I've seen.....they just monitored the protest. 

Back in the summer, I personally viewed a pro-refugee protest in Wiesbaden.  If you counted the protest crowd, the folks just standing there viewing it, and the police presence.....probably around 75 people.  Some speeches were made....flags were waved....police just standing at a distance, and I sat....sipping through a chilled beer at a sidewalk pub on a warm afternoon.

Several Covid Stories

 1.  Several weeks ago, across Germany, there was hype of cancelled fireworks on 31 December (New Years Eve).  The reasoning was prevention of Covid (yeah, as silly as it sounds).  The wording?  It was never clear.

So yesterday, the Premier-President of Hessen (my local state)....made it crystal clear.  While you can't fire off fireworks in public parks or metro public areas....there's no ban for selling fireworks or using them in your own yard/garden.  

2.  The new Health Minister had some kind of agenda figured up....to get everyone hyped up on the 'booster' shot.  It didn't really mattered if you finished up your second shot two months ago.....he wanted everyone on the 'wagon' to get a booster (even though it has no advantage for the Omikron variant).  

Well.....he woke up yesterday to learn that no matter which vaccine you talk about....there just ain't enough 'juice' for some magnificent booster program.  The two primary companies were a bit surprised over the sudden logistics change and admitted....'no, we can't deliver on this new schedule'.

Getting a 'solution-date'?  Probably in the next day or two....a schedule will arrive but I doubt if they can deliver what they want for at least six to eight weeks.  

What was the logic for the booster?  Well....this was explained back three months ago.  They figured shot one/two would be good for about ten to twelve months originally, then they changed the words to say nine months.  Some medical folks now say the antibody strength is mostly gone by nine months....so they want six months to be the new goal.  

3.  The 'League of Doctor Dooms'?  Yesterday, the Health Ministry announced that a group of nineteen virus experts from across Germany are now 'hired-up' (paid in some way) to meet regularly and provide 'advice' to the new coalition government and the Health Minister.

The basic idea?  If you stand back and admire it.....they would have x-solution for this problem and 'agree'.  The Health Minister would try to push that as the national solution.  

Problems?  The sixteen German states....run by politicians....might have various issues and bump up against the Health Minister.  The idea being discussed.....science should run governmental decisions.  

Will the nineteen 'Doctor Dooms' even agree on things?  This might be another problem.  

4.  Late yesterday, there was some highly confusing chatter from the government (I'll even admit four different sources of news.....gave difficult to understand changes in ban rules).

So, the jest of this involves the booster shot business.  Once you dig into what the government said.....if you were going to a place that required 2G-PLUS (meaning you were vaxed-up or recovered, AND tested).....you could skip testing if you had the booster shot.

What kind of places?  Well....I looked it up.  Concert halls, disco operations, night-clubs, and places of prostitution.  Yes....brothels.  

Restaurants or pubs?  NO.  None of them were involved in the 2G-PLUS stuff.

The confusing business?  The way it continually got explained....people felt they meant restaurants and pubs being 2G-PLUS, which they weren't in that category.

Driving people to get the booster?  Maybe,  All of this on that tray of continual rule/ban changes?  Well....that's the chief problem that most people are discussing....change after change.  If you stepped out of the country for two months and came back in....you'd have to sit down and read the current regulations because Covid rules continually change.  

5.  Vaccine 'credit-cards'?  Some pharmacy operations in Germany are selling a vaccine-pass credit-type card.  You walk in....show your vax record, and they make up a nifty-pass (as they say....you might need it if your cellphone battery ran out).  Cost?  10 Euro.  

The issue I see....if we get to the point of boosters every five or six months.....you'd have to continually go back to a pharmacy to get a new updated card.