A restaurateur in Augsburg is changing the access rules for his pub.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin It is now almost a year since Angela Merkel stepped in front of the cameras and personally asked the citizens for forgiveness. The idea of turning Maundy Thursday and Holy Saturday into rest days in order to limit contacts and thus break the third wave of corona was not thought through to the end, said the then Chancellor. Too many open questions, from continued wage payments to the situation in the shops, could not have been clarified in the short time available.
The canceled “Easter peace” is just the most obvious example of the fact that German corona policy often followed the “trial and error” method. This is also not surprising, since the Federal Republic was confronted with a health crisis of this magnitude for the first time.
>> Read here: How Angela Merkel apologized for the botched “Easter peace”.
In order to better manage future crises, however, it is important to learn the right lessons from the pandemic. The federal government has therefore asked the four employer and business associations BDA, BDI, DIHK and ZDH for suggestions on what should be done differently and better in the future.
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The result is a 25-page ten-point paper that the central organizations have now sent to the government. It is available from the Handelsblatt. With the concrete recommendations for action, the German economy wants to make its contribution “to strengthen resilience for future crises and pandemics”, it says.
The proposals range from a comprehensive digitization of the health system, administration and schools to securing systemically important supplies and ensuring the smooth movement of goods and goods. For example, mobile digital work requires an efficient broadband network.
Also because of the insufficient digitization of the schools, there are “considerable and difficult to catch up learning deficits among schoolchildren, declining educational opportunities and later loss of income”. As evidence, Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP) announced at the beginning of March that around three years after the start of the digital school pact, only around 1.2 billion of the now 6.5 billion euros in funding had flowed out.
Measures to combat the pandemic decided by politicians could certainly take different regional characteristics into account, but should be presented in a “digital regulatory map” that is transparent and comprehensible for everyone, write the associations. They would also have to be appropriate and communicated with the necessary advance notice.
A prime example of how things should not work was the shortening of the convalescent status from six to three months announced by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), which surprised not only citizens and companies, but also Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD).
Read here: How politics and companies are currently dealing with the corona pandemic
From one day to the next, recovered employees who had relied on the six-month period had problems with the applicable 3G regulation in the company. The associations should also be included in the planning at an early stage, which would probably have prevented the debacle surrounding the “Easter peace”.
In the view of the BDA, BDI, DIHK and ZDH, a nationwide IT structure with uniform procedures would be very helpful so that companies can apply for economic aid more easily in the future.
The associations are also concerned that there were temporary bottlenecks in the corona crisis, for example with masks, protective clothing or tests. Something like this shouldn’t be allowed to happen again. Therefore, the research and production location for health goods must be strengthened.
Uncoordinated national measures that hinder the transport of goods or commuters should be avoided. And to maintain logistics and supply chains, special rules would have to be established, for example for quarantine regulations or working hours.
Because the fact that there will be further crises and pandemics after Corona and the Ukraine war is “not a question of if, but only of when”, write the associations – not least with regard to the foreseeable consequences of climate change. “We have to be ready for that. What is needed is the creative use of resources in combating crises and pandemics in order to reduce the burden on the economy and society to a minimum.”
More: Corona measures in the office: These are the planned new rules for companies