After 2 years of not seeing my family, I was back in the USA twice at the end of last year. In October we booked emergency tickets and were back visiting a sick family member within 72 hours. A Christmas trip was planned. Both trips were a low-key shock to the system.

As an American who has lived in Berlin for the past 11 years, I heard from friends who visited the USA that the Covid-response was being handled differently and I wasn’t surprised. We’ve all heard the numbers, the reports of high deaths, of laissez faire attitudes from the top down. I also heard from my parents in semi-rural Washington State, taking the pandemic very seriously, limiting contact and retreating back to their homestead.

We arrived to Seatac airport on that emergency trip with no time to plan or prepare besides wading through the mountain of new paperwork it takes to fly.  I truly did not know what to expect. In liberal Seattle and the westside of the mountains people were generally abiding by the rules. Once we ventured further east to the more conservative side of the state the level of adherence dropped significantly. As I’ve told my 7-year-old every time she looks at me quizzically like, “Is this ok?” – I have no idea. We are all clearly making this up as we go along.

Masked, Vaxed and Ready to Travel PHOTO: Erin Porter

I reported once before about my perceptions of the pandemic in March 2020. Unbelievably to me (and many others) we are nearly two years in and still deep in a pandemic. After these recent adventures I thought it was time to share again about what things look in Germany (or at least Berlin) and how that differed from what I found in the United States of America.

Masks

I am never an early adapter, and this held true for masks. My mom in the USA sent me a care packages of masks for the whole family by April 2020 and I didn’t really know what to do with them. They were fabric and in every shape, size and color. Mask mandates were in place in Berlin for the grocery store, but almost no where else. At the grocery store, I dutifully put on a thin mask and entered past new security guards.

Slowly, more scientific reports came out about the function of masks and what was actually helpful. It became accepted logic (by most people) in Germany that at least FFP2 masks (equivalent to international standards known as N95, KN95 and P2 masks) should be used whenever in an indoor space. They had a high rate of preventing you from infecting others AND preventing you from getting sick. To enter stores or ride transport people must wear FFP2, KN95 or surgical masks. Basic masks made of fabric or other coverings of the mouth and nose are no longer permitted and violations of the mask requirement can result in fines of 50 to 500 euros. Although use of masks has visibility wavered at different times during the pandemic, what I see currently is about 99% compliance. If you try to enter a store without a mask you will be refused entrance.

In the USA this level of mask-wearing dropped dramatically and few people were wearing the equivalent of an FFP2 mask. Cloth masks are still popular with simple surgical masks available at the entry of grocery stores and many shops. They are simply begging people to wear something! As politics has made mask-wearing a statement rather than a necessary step to control the pandemic, people seemed proud of flaunting their disregard for the mask mandate. On the west side I would say there was only 80% of people wearing masks (and many of them cloth thus nearly pointless) and on the east side compliance visibly fell to something like 70%. (Note these numbers are estimates of what my family saw as I haven’t been able to find any accurate accounting of numbers). I shared information with my parents in the fall when I realized the discrepancy and convinced by the data they made the transition to FFP2 masks. The CDC is beginning to spread the message about the effectiveness of different masks but like so many things it seems too little, too late.

Shortages 

Everyone had their pictures early in the pandemic of the missing toilet paper on grocery shelves. There were fights over toilet paper. “Is this what we’ve come to?” people cried.

As numbers surge again after Christmas, I have noticed there is less toilettenpapier on the shelves, but it is there. In fact, I’ve noticed almost no shortages of grocery items in Berlin. Perhaps this is different in your experience, or in other areas of Germany. If so, please leave a comment.

In the USA, my parents mourned the absence of their beloved jalapeno cream cheese along with a host of other items. The towering shelves of items in these stores is almost overwhelming to me when I go back – so many choices! – so I hardly noticed the difference, but they did. This was a little more stark when we went to the pharmacy and their rows of cough drops and over-the-counter cold remedies were clearly decimated.

Covid-Testing

In March 2021 (about a year into the pandemic!) Germany started offering one free Schnelltest (quick test) to residents per week and Selbsttest (self tests) were released on grocery stores. The limit of one per week was immediately disregarded and people were testing as much as they wanted. Initially the grocery store tests were constantly sold out, but now they sit near the check-out along with packs of gum and shooters of Schnaps.

Schnelltest in Germany PHOTO: dronepicr

I have outlined the process of going to a test center in a previous post. In a move to drive more people to get vaccinated, many test centers closed in the fall and they were charging about 20 euro. They re-opened soon after as 2G+ (vacated and tested within 24 hours) regulations are our new norm. Boosters are replacing the test requirements again so we see if another wave of closures come for test centers. PCR tests are only at test centers and are only required for (some) travel and to verify covid status after a positive schnelltest.

Selbsttest are easy to do and we have a bag of tests lying around the house at all times. My daughter who attends Grundschule (elementary school) self-tests at school three times a week since she started last August and we have been asked to test my son who attends KiTa at home with the KiTa supplying tests.

In the USA we were in a near panic as regulations of what we needed to fly continued to evolve during and getting tested proved near impossible. Test centers were booked out weeks in advance and run by private organizations that had confusing rules and sign ups. (Note that much of the testing in Germany is also privately provided but publicly subsidized and much less confusing). Self tests (which wouldn’t have been sufficient to fly) were sold out everywhere with apologetic signs basically summarizing “Don’t even ask”.

I didn’t mind getting tested, but we simply couldn’t get an appointment. In a last minute reprieve the regulations changed and we were able to fly back to Berlin via Heathrow without a recent Covid test. My husband and and I are double vaccinated and boosted, but it was simply crazy to me that we weren’t required to test before flying.

Vaccine 

In Berlin it has become routine to have your smartphone available upon entering a store to show you are vaccinated/boosted/tested. There are two main apps:  Corona-Warn and Luca. The process of having vaccines certificatied on your phone is that you:

• Get both shots
• Impfpass (vaccine booklet) is filled out at appointment
• Take your booklet to an Apotheke (pharmacy) where they give you a paper with a QR code
• Scan your QR code with one of those two apps and now you can move around more freely

There is a paper option, but you really need to have a phone to get around at this point. This causes delays going anywhere and a line forming for even the Tchibo, but it is a better system then the USA where I observed no system at all. We got my 7-year-old her first Covid shot in the USA as they had rolled out vaccines for children much earlier than in Germany (same for adults). Her second shot was in Germany and the doctor asked about the system in the States, bemoaning Germany’s love of paperwork. I looked glumly at the paper card we had been issued in Washington certifying my daughter received her shot and said I didn’t know if it was any better in the USA.

As far as overall vaccinated, it is disappointing how many Germans are still unvaccianted. It currently stands at 73.2% of the population (source). The USA is a truly dismal 63.6% of the population which is apaling considering how easy it is to get vaccinated there. My home state of Washington has simply given up tracking many metrics but gives an updated dashboard of 71.6% fully vaccinated. We need to do better.

Quarantine

Over a year ago, a very hopefully friend gathered a group of us and planned a group outing to a villa in Poland. There would be skiing! Hot tubs! Fun days and silly nights! But as the date crept closer, people started to pull out. There was still too much uncertainty about what was safe.

The nail in the coffin was when Poland was once again listed as a high-risk country and would require quarantine for the unvaccinated returning to Germany. All the adults on this trip were vaccinated and boosted, but we had several children accompanying and none of them had the shot. The thought of missing even more KiTa and school days sent several parents packing and the trip was dead. (Luckily to be revived as a much smaller group ventured into the Austrian Alps! Stay tuned to my next post for details of that trip.)

Several people I have spoken with think the shutdowns of previous winters are right around the corner. They may be right. My 2-year-old is the only one of us still unvaccinated and I worry for him, worry for us. We are voluntarily lying low, but the kids are going into school until next week’s Winterferien (winter break). That seems to be best we can do.

Stay safe y’all!