Old Europe: What anti-vaxxers and digital deniers have in common

It's like a scene from Groundhog Day: Caught in a time loop, we repeatedly watch the next wave of coronavirus deluge the country. Case numbers are skyrocketing, IC-units are filling up, social life has slowed to a trickle, and our next-door neighbor Austria is already completely locked down again. Maybe a good thing, one has to think – after all, in combination with a vaccine mandate there's at least a medium-term chance of breaking the vicious cycle of virus mutation, ignorance and political faint-heartedness. Will we ever manage to do that in Germany, too?

Wishful thinking. Who would have thought that a country like Germany would keep making the mistake over and over for two long years, or more accurately, would keep muddling through various permutations of the same error? The three German-speaking countries – Germany, Austria and Switzerland – top the list of European countries with the most unvaccinated residents; it's about a quarter of the population in each of them. The only countries higher up on the Worst List are places like Hungary, Poland and Russia, all of whom seem to be intent on restoring authoritarianism. In those countries the proportion of the population that has not been vaccinated ranges from 30 to nearly 60 percent.

Karl Marx recognized many social evils, not including the novel coronavirus, of course. And yet he described the current situation in parts of Europe quite accurately 200 years ago: History always happens twice – first as tragedy, then as farce. We are already in the farce stage. And if the facts weren't so sad and sinister – in terms of public health, the economy, and the shattering of social cohesion – we would have to laugh.

Or cry. For example when we examine the new magic number that is supposed to provide clarity about how acute the COVID threat actually is. The hospitalization rate, as defined in the updated Infection Protection Act, is the number of Covid-19 cases requiring admission to a hospital, as reported by the Robert Koch Institute. Unfortunately it's hardly a meaningful statistic, because it only reflects the situation of about three weeks ago. To this date there is still no digital reporting system. In Germany, the numbers are still faxed.

Deficits were not eliminated in the pandemic

Which brings us to one of the core problems with how we've handled the pandemic: Digital infrastructure. Even before the pandemic, it had been neglected for years. That's why there's hardly any up-to-date data, why doctors are still pushing paper and filling forms in addition to fighting the virus, why health officials still don't communicate with each other efficiently enough. In the EU's new Digital Economy and Society Index, Germany once again lags behind the European average in several key criteria such as the integration of digital technology and the digitalization of public services (e-government). Now, one might have thought that two years of a global pandemic would have provided enough incentive to iron out all the difficulties once and for all. But that didn't happen. We just keep sending faxes and arguing about far-reaching restrictions and possible lockdowns, two years after the pandemic started, and three-quarters of a year after several different vaccines became available.

An "Old Europe" is becoming visible in the light of the pandemic

What's wrong with Germany, Austria and Switzerland? Why are these countries in particular failing so badly in the face of the pandemic? The dearth of digital offerings in public administration is just one reason. Governments also seem hopelessly afraid to take the kind of stand in favor of public health and solidarity that Austria has now finally taken. By hesitating for so long to mandate vaccinations, or to at least place clear restrictions on the unvaccinated, these governments have sent an unfortunate signal. Hesitancy in the face of AfD-speak, conspiracy theories and the general unwillingness of individuals to make a contribution to ensure that the economy and society are spared further drastic measures – all this seems to be more important than people's obligation to society and solidarity during a pandemic. Seeing as other European countries have achieved higher vaccination rates – Portugal, Spain and France are all well above 70 percent – perhaps we should ask the question the other way around: Is it still possible to implement forward-looking policies in the demographically aging, German-speaking countries, where the majority is focused on maintaining the status quo? Or has the welfare state made some people so lethargic that it no longer even occurs to them that there might be more important interests than their own freedom, which apparently manifests itself primarily in the freedom to refuse vaccination?

Back in 2003 Donald Rumsfeld, then US secretary of defense, spoke of "Old Europe." It was not meant as a compliment; he was not praising tradition and continuity. It was harsh criticism of the fact that Germany and other European countries were no longer able to adapt to the modern world. Rumsfeld's remark was made in the context of the war in Iraq; there is no comparison with our situation today. And yet a different Old Europe is becoming visible in the light of the pandemic. This new Old Europe is no longer able to keep up with the times, to uphold the interests of the majority, to make meaningful investments in the future, in progress – and thus in the well-being of its own population. Measured against the continent's potential, this is indeed a farce.