Saving Lives? Only between 9-15, please!

Vaccines & Startups - three reasons why Germany is failing in both!

A friend of mine has a grandfather who is way over 90 years old. And after not getting a letter from Munich city regarding his vaccine, they decided to call them to ask what was going on. The employee was friendly and told them that they still need to wait for a formal invitation letter for him to get invited to be vaccinated. So they asked another question, which was, what's the letter going to say? And she said, I don't know, I think you will have to call again and make an appointment—a typical fiasco of the German bureaucracy.

This is just one out of many stories of the German vaccine story's catastrophe, hiding behind European Union "conformity" and some dusty regulations. The culture here is what often prevents things from being done and fast.

To save as many lives as possible? Only if it's in the business hours.

On the other hand, in Israel, a tiny country surrounded by many enemies, things are going way better. As you can see below, up to today, already 38% of the population was vaccinated. They started more than a week before Germany - and EVERY day matters - which has only reached 1,8 percent. So why is there such a vast difference, and what are the reasons for this colossal failure?

I find it very similar to what's happening in the startup world. When looking for the yearly number of unicorns in the world, which means startups that have reached a $1 billion valuation and more, you can see that ten were founded in Israel, and only 12 in Germany, a country more than tenfold the size of the tiny middle Middle Eastern nation. Here is why Germany's failing with vaccinations, just as it is in innovation and startups.

"We've always done it that way."

Whenever I meet business people and even students around Germany, I always feel that there's a massive fear of the new, a fear of the unknown, a fear of doing something in a new way. And Corona is unique and very big. 

This is also connected to the German mechanical and electric engineering heritage of the past. Typically, a German business champion means that a company produces some wheels or other mechanical components for the car industry. But in a world where the car industry or the mechanical industry, in general, is not that relevant anymore, and all that matters is programming and software, Germany's slowly losing its edge. Whereas Israel, having no resources or traditional background in engineering and manufacturing, had to reinvent itself in those areas where you need nothing more than a keyboard and your brain.

Contact tracing app? Three months and 20 million Euros in Germany cashed by SAP and Deutsche Telekom - since it had to be "perfect" and "safe." And in Israel? Let's just say the entire startup nation is still laughing about this ridiculous time and budget. 

"Data Security."

I don't think any Israeli would ever say that he or she is entirely safe. In a way, every Israeli who has served in the IDF knows that if you do something terrible, if there's a reason to suspect your anything, there will be a way to find what you're doing. And it doesn't matter how you're paying your bills, if you are using Whatsapp, or how "securely" you're handing your data.

On the other hand, in Germany, it's a whole different story. The Germans are still the world's leading users of cash. I know many people, even young ones, who cannot imagine using credit cards or other electronic payment forms.

It is a constant fear of your data being stolen or merely looked at, which, to be honestly speaking, makes a lot of sense considering the dark past both of Eastern Germany and Nazi Germany. It can be still be seen in many places. Even after a year in the corona crisis, the little shop down the street selling newspapers or Baker around the other still refuses to accept cards for payment. How can that be in the year 2021?

And when it comes to vaccines, many of them are made by Biontech and Pfizer, which means that they can only survive five days in standard cooling. There's a big problem, especially on that last day: Any vaccine that's not used has to be thrown away. So what happens is, by being scared of losing vaccines, to begin with, we see horrible statistics of only a small proportion of actually available vaccines being used to make sure that they get to the right people.

 On the other hand, in Israel, the entire process is done electronically - you register by an app to get your vaccine. At the end of every day, dedicated social media groups inform where vaccines are still left to be used that day, so they are not thrown away. 

Please come from 9-15!

For the last month, all of a sudden, there's all the time in the world in providing the vaccines; protecting lives? Just stay at home for that! This is also fueled by excuses of some European Union conformity. It's about the typical German state employee who can not work more than a 40 hour week. 

And when asking German students if they want to work for a Startup? No.

And for Siemens? Absolutely! (but only with a fixed 40-hour contract, please)

A good friend of mine, a doctor who works at the biggest clinic in Munich, told me the craziest story ever. He wanted to help out and administer vaccines to the hospital's population after his regular working hours or on the weekend. The answer? Sorry, we only operate Monday to Friday, from nine to three. 

This is a scandal that is a part of this almost socialistic German system in which hospital workers would never dare to stay and work after 3 pm. Thankfully some outstanding private firms and other organizations are the ones to be running the testing and vaccine centers. 

On the other hand, even the Ultra-Orthodox in Israel agree that to save lives, vaccines must be administered day and night, even on the Holy Saturday.