Ricardo Lange, 39, works as a nurse in a Berlin intensive care unit; his clinic is one of 17 facilities with a Covid focus. Here he reports every week about night shifts, makeshift arrangements and glimmers of hope.
Mr. Lange, you have a few days off right now. Are you turning off?
Well I talk to my colleagues from the clinic on the phone and don’t hear anything good about it, louder and younger patients who suddenly deteriorate and often die suddenly. Otherwise, I do a lot of vaccination. Last week, Professor Henn from the Ethics Council raised the question of whether or not people who refuse to be vaccinated should receive life-saving ventilation in the event of Covid.
How do you feel about it?
I think: Nobody should be denied medical help because of their decisions, no matter how we judge them personally, morally and ethically – and even if these decisions affect others in society. This includes vaccination opponents, corona deniers and also political decision-makers who have saved the health system to this day.
Wolfram Henn expressed his private opinion and wanted to stimulate thought.
I got that. But a divided society, which is already battered, does not take it so well. What we need is education, not pressure. Instead, those who express fears about the as yet unknown vaccination are immediately sorted into the camp of the corona deniers. Nurses who still doubt whether they want to be vaccinated are insulted that they are not suitable for the job. Where was the outcry when we had to work without adequate protective gowns and masks?
Not all questions about vaccination can already be answered.
I am missing a major campaign by the federal government as we know it from stem cell donation for leukemia, commercials on television, an address to the nation in which our Minister of Health gave the Mode of action and the risks explained. And if there are no answers to certain questions, such as how well the vaccination against the mutated virus helps, then our politicians have to be honest.
We cannot ask the population to collect the information themselves on the Internet. Especially now that there are so many charlatans out there. The strategy in this pandemic is to hope for vaccination. But we also have to take people with us.
[Die Toten der Pandemie: Der Tagesspiegel gedenkt der Berliner Opfer und erzählt ihre Geschichten]
Do you have a Christmas wish?
Appreciation. I can no longer hear this “thank you” from politicians, it is lazy and inexpensive. The first wave was already a warning shot, it was the pictures from Italy and the nurse Alexander Jorde already pointed out the personnel emergency to Angela Merkel three years ago. There is still no concept of how we can make this job more attractive.
[Weitere Folgen der Kolumne “Außer Atem” mit Ricardo Lange lesen Sie hier, hier, hier, hier, hier, hier, hier und hier]
But you also get a lot of support, the left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht met you for an interview, You speak on talk shows and strangers offer you help.
Just imagine, a candidate from the Neukölln CDU recently contacted us. She wanted to give me and my colleagues a gift basket as thanks for our work. She asked whether I work in Neukölln. I explained to her that I am employed by a leasing company and work in various clinics, but for almost a year I have been regularly in a certain building – which is not in Neukölln. That would be difficult then, she said, she preferred the people in Neukölln and she had to discuss this with her party first.
It was about a gift basket, not a lottery win! I haven’t heard from her since. I’m not available for lobbying like that. And speaking of appreciation. I know a nurse whose employer gave her two scoops of ice cream to pick up in the canteen in the summer after the first wave. Two scoops of ice for having been risking her health for months to save others.
Hard to believe. Has something good happened to you too?
Yes, a kind of Christmas miracle. A few days ago an employee of a federal ministry wrote to me. He wanted to give me his corona bonus of 300 euros because the federal government’s funds only reached the employees of state houses. I replied that I was very happy, but that he should make his wife happy with the money. I don’t want individuals to compensate for what politics screw up. It’s not about the money, but about credibility. For Christmas, I want the government to keep its promises. And, as announced, this includes bonuses for everyone who has achieved and is still doing extraordinary things in this pandemic.
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