Are Germans too rational?

A 6-minute read

Three Things

• As of Thursday Germany has simplified the rules for entering the country. People arriving from risk areas (7-day incidence >50) now only need a negative antigen test done in the last 48 hours, or a PCR test from the past 72 hours. “For pandemic control, a test result in black and white is much better than a quarantine that is only sporadically checked, if at all,” said interior minister Horst Seehofer in a surprising show of candour about the old policy. The new ruling also means that Germans can cross into the Czech Republic for 24 hours without needing a test. Good news for chain smokers and lovers of cheap petrol!

• Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg have abolished the priority list for vaccinations at GPs. That means that doctors can now give appointments for any vaccine they have excess stocks of. More states are likely to follow.

• At an unregistered demonstration in front of a synagogue in Gelsenkirchen (NRW) participants chanted “Scheiß Juden”. In Bonn and Münster Israeli fl…