Column Clarified and enlightened in the fight against the pandemic: Corona vaccination: learn from mistakes

class=”sc-cffd1e67-0 fmXrkB”>

The more unclear the world seems, the more prone the human brain is to conspiratorial short circuits. In order to still understand the incomprehensible, she develops a worldview under the motto: Better a bad theory than no theory at all. These bad theories always lead to the same thing: there is someone, someone or someone who is pulling the strings in the background and leading the world by the nose. This is not true, but the brain calms down.

During the Corona period, the world turned upside down and some people’s brains were working non-stop. However, after the state of emergency, the time has come for a thorough cooling down – composure. Because in a crisis, decisions are made under conditions of uncertainty, which may later turn out to be wrong – this is part of the political-democratic business. But an enlightened person wants to learn from mistakes so as not to repeat them. And in order to learn, he must calmly admit and name mistakes.

What they said during the pandemic

I would like to give a few quotes – as cool as possible:

On 12 August 2021, Health Minister Alain Berset stated: “Corona vaccination protects against infection, further spread of the virus or serious progression of the disease.”

On October 4, 2021, the Federal Office of Public Health (BAG) stated: “Vaccination protects against contracting coronavirus and transmitting it to others.”

On November 25, 2021, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, said: “Vaccination protects you and everyone else.”

At a hearing in the EU Parliament on October 18, 2022, the president of international markets for the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, Janine Small, will be asked whether the vaccine was tested for transmission of the virus before it was approved on the market. She says no. We really had to move at the speed of science to really understand what was happening in the market.”

On 18 October 2023, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said in a letter to EU parliamentarians: “You are indeed correct to note that Covid-19 vaccines are not designed to prevent transmission from one person to another and are authorized. The indications are for the protection of vaccinated people only.”

For some it will be especially painful

A completely non-paranoid, but even more frightening question: is it possible to have a world in which all these statements are true at the same time? Enlightened politicians in Switzerland and other countries must finally find the courage to come to terms with the Corona period, even if it hurts (and some, of course, more than others).

René Scheu is a philosopher and managing director of the Institute for Swiss Economic Policy. (IWP) in Lucerne. He writes to Blick every other Monday.

Source: Blick