How Germany is beating COVID, and what America can learn

German testing site.
(Image credit: JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP via Getty Images)

Germany is in a "much better position" than America to say "auf wiedersehen" to COVID-19, thanks to a series of basic, manageable measures helping mitigate Delta variant-associated risk, writes Yascha Mounk for The Atlantic. That said, U.S. officials could therefore try and learn a thing or two from their European counterparts.

Mounk argues U.S. health authorities should implement four Germany-emulating tactics in their fight against COVID. The first? "Ensure mass events don't facilitate mass transmission," he writes, which he says America can do by applying the same basic rules almost everywhere. In Germany, that means "anybody who wants to dine indoors, go to the theater, or attend a large sporting event has to be vaccinated or have recovered from COVID-19 within the past six months." Otherwise, you must've tested negative for the disease within the last 24 hours. Conversely, in the U.S. "the organizers of mass events aren't required to ensure that attendees have little risk of spreading COVID," and many businesses and sports teams often ask for vaccination status voluntarily.

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Brigid Kennedy

Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.