Our lovely government has been inept at handling the largest public health crisis for a century. This is not a statement with hindsight but an expression of frustration for more than a year.
After having failed at setting up a comprehensive testing and tracing regime, our government bumbled the vaccine rollout: Lonza, based in Switzerland, proposed the government our own vaccination production.
While the ‘we don’t publish numbers on weekends, because also our employees need time off, too’ comment of the ministry of health is Asterix & Obelix level parody (‘It’s 5pm, tea time. We’ll be back to battle after that’) the rejection of the vaccination production kills people.
And that is just the latest misstep. With the next one already visible on the horizon: The social and economic upheaval is significant. And instead of starting a national conversation about healing, about rebuilding, about solidarity (yes that might imply higher taxes) you hear, well, Nothing…
But then, this is something most likely – and the proof points of the past 12 months support the claim – beyond their skillset. Most of the folks in positions of relevance starting with our government minsters have been politicians all their live or most of their lives.
In a country like ours a political career is still built primarily on risk avoidance (Any too extreme position will cost you the votes across the aisle to become minister… ). A crisis is pretty much the opposite. The nature of a crisis is confusion. It requires taking calculated and at times bigger risks to resolve it. Not an operational pattern any of our leaders is used to.
