That would of course be the worst-case scenario: hardly has Europe reached the home stretch after three hard years of Corona, when the pandemic threatens to start all over again due to people arriving from China. The culprit would be the authoritarian regime in Beijing, which, with its completely exaggerated no-Covid strategy, ensured that the virus could not spread there and is now overrunning a poorly protected population. In order to protect the rest of the world from a new wave with many unknown variables, several European heads of government, but also politicians from the Union and the SPD, are calling for compulsory testing for travelers from China.
In the past, Germany has imposed entry restrictions when there was a particularly high risk of infection in an area, either due to particularly high incidences or a new, more dangerous variant. The fact is that the number of infections in Europe is not exactly low at the moment either. Nevertheless, we can now deal with it well because almost everyone has been vaccinated or has recovered – and the danger of Omikron is comparatively low.
Initial sequencing indicates that the mutation prevalent in China is very similar to our variant. Of course, there is still the risk of a “killer variant”: But when in the last three years have travel restrictions prevented a mutation from being introduced anyway? It is a well-known fact that tests are always just snapshots. That’s the price you have to pay in a globalized world.
The main reason for the demands will probably be the hope of being able to put pressure on China to be more transparent with its corona data. The intention is correct: Beijing must live up to its international responsibilities. But are those in power who have locked down the people for months and ignored their needs really swayed by mandatory testing?
Instead of panicking, one could also gain something positive from the supposed danger and see it as a stress test for our immunity. If we survive this wave unscathed, there is no longer any reason not to finally declare the pandemic politically over.
