Expat Lessons: Road Construction and the Coronavirus Vaccine
An Outsider’s Attempt to Draw Parallels between Two Unrelated Topics
Germany is famous for its speed-limitless Autobahns. They are — literally — the stuff of legend. In America, we speak with awe about the potential to zoom down the highway without fear of being pulled over. After living here, we know (thanks to a few speeding tickets) that the places where speed is unregulated are few and far between, and one must stay on high alert to sudden shifts from no-limit driving to speed-controlled areas.
For almost the entirety of my time here, it has felt like there has been a construction project on the highways between my home and my office. (I looked it up, and it is true: construction on the A3-A73 interchange started in fall of 2016, a few months after my temporary stay became permanent.) As a foreigner with an intermediate-at-best understanding of the language and culture, it has felt like an endless exercise without a clear goal, with rules, lanes and speed limits that change from one day to the next. One day, we feel close to the end, as all lanes open up and the exits (Ausfahrt¹ in German, which always makes my parents giggle) are easy to navigate; a week later, a road that was just paved is torn up again.
Wondering when this will all be over (summer 2021, hurray!), I turned to the Internet and came upon a treasure trove of documentation². Now, I think I understand three key facts about the project. Firstly, the planning for this project will last more than twice as long as the execution. Secondly, the plan is based on solving a future problem, not solving a problem that exists today. Lastly, the plan considers both the short- and long-term impact the project will have on the environment and its surrounding areas.
In my admittedly partially-educated assessment, I can draw parallels from this construction project to the vaccination roll-out, albeit in a more interrelated manner. One major difference between the vaccination program in Germany and the U.S. or U.K. is liability. In the U.S., neither the pharmaceutical companies nor the government will be responsible if there are any adverse effects from the vaccines; in the U.K., the Government has agreed to take on liability. By contrast, in Germany, the pharmaceutical companies will be liable if there are any adverse risks. Obviously, we all hope that there are no adverse side effects, regardless of the country, and I could argue that the possible side effects or future risks likely outweigh our current risk. In a country with a strong and stable public health infrastructure, holding the pharmaceutical companies liable seems like a smart long-term decision.
From a short-term perspective, there has not been a long time for either the government or the population to plan for (or understand) the vaccines. If the timeline for construction is any indication, one could assume that fully understanding the risks, assessing all options and building a well-researched plan would be the preferred way for Germans to move forward. Unfortunately, the stressors and risks of Coronavirus challenge the preference for caution and planning and lead to uncomfortable situations and decision-making processes.
To date, Germany’s vaccine supply is fully dependent on imports, but the Government has just announced a plan to produce its own supply, starting next year. Here, I will attempt to draw another interesting traffic parallel. In the U.S., if there is a traffic accident, emergency vehicles will often need to use the hard shoulder or cars will somehow have to edge into a crowded right lane. In Germany, if traffic is stopped, cars move aside to provide a “rescue lane” between two lanes of traffic, which allows the emergency vehicles to speed through unhindered and without fear that a hard shoulder might end. Today in Germany, we are sitting in a bit of a traffic jam when it comes to the vaccine roll-out, but the Government has just cleared a path to ensure we have supply for the future.
All that said, one of the challenges about living in a foreign country during a pandemic is that cultural context and nuance are mostly lost on me. I can read and mostly comprehend the rules and commentary, but I am not able to fully grasp political or societal opinion, and indeed the written opinion pieces I would likely read in English are well above my German comprehension. Much of the time, I go through my life here making best attempts to understand, but end up with a completely opposite understanding of the situation; I expect that could well be the case here too.
[1] Can any native German explain to me why there is not article on the exit signs? Should they all say die Ausfahrt? Is it for safety reasons?
[2] The most complete information I have found is here (it was quite a vocabulary lesson for me as well.) Unfortunately, as a part of this research I have learned that there is a second project on the A3 from the A3-A73 interchange toward Biebelried (past Herzogenaurach), which started in 2020 and will last until 2025. The “hooray!” in the previous sentence might be premature…
