In the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, French authorities communicated extensively about the ineffectiveness of the mask. The government went so far as to suppress its distribution, sale, and use in the public arena.
It is not the first time that von der Leyen fell under an EU body’s scrutiny. In late January this year, the European Ombudsman launched an investigation to ascertain her role in negotiations with the U.S. pharmaceutical.
The existence of recurrent crises should not be used to justify the maintenance of a permanent state of emergency or to bypass the governing protocols of the Fifth Republic.
We witnessed a prolonged curtailment of freedom of movement, freedom of association, and freedom of speech. But Mark Woolhouse does not address this. In fact, while he clearly comes out as lockdown sceptical, it is not entirely clear why.
Health Minister Lauterbach presented the latest version of the German Infection Protection Act which will keep mask mandates and vaccination statuses around until 2023.
Containment, curfews, and the use of the health pass are now a thing of the past. The scientific council, responsible for guiding the government’s health policy, is dissolved.
The health ministry originally feared as many as 10 million doses would have to be thrown out, until it emerged that the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine can be stored for longer than initially thought, downgrading the estimated waste to 3 million doses.
“It’s not particularly about COVID, but about recognizing the patterns we are creating. I think that is the main topic in the film: people need to start seeing the patterns and recognize how they are being copied with every new global threat.”—Marijn Poels
Vaccines targeting the BA.1, BA.4, and BA.5 strains of the Omicron variant are in developmental stages, but the European Medicines Agency is not certain all will be approved by September.
