Bavarian Health Ministry plans propaganda cartoons featuring "Secret Agent 00-Vax" to "explain" vaccination to children, enters talks with computer game industry to feature more masked characters

This is the stupidest timeline

Klaus Holetschek, Bavarian Health Minister, removes his mask to take a call on his mobile. I guess it either wasn’t doing anything or SARS-2 just isn’t that dangerous.

Today, we learn that the Bavarian Health Ministry, dismayed by the paralysis of the federal government, has decided to take the Fall vaccination campaign into its own hands.

There will be cartoons, there will be radio ads, there will be a new emphasis on “personal responsibility.”

It will be terrible:

Radio advertising, nationwide poster campaigns, pamphlets for nursing homes, internet influencers – all part of a broad-based campaign planned by the Bavarian government to promote Corona vaccination in the Fall, together with hygiene regulations such as masks and distancing rules. The campaign will specifically address young people and children. For example, there’s the planned series “Murmel und Mo,” of two 15-minute films, in which a girl and her stuffed animal explore the immune system and the special effects of vaccinations – including “Secret Agent 00-Vax.” The films are currently in production. To educate youth, talks are currently underway with the computer game industry; it’s hoped that some game characters will wear masks. …

A Health Ministry representative presented these ideas to the expert committee in the Bavarian Landtag on Tuesday. … The overloading of hospitals is no longer “a primary argument” for vaccination; in the current phase of the pandemic, the focus has shifted to personal responsibility and emphasising “what advantage the individual can derive from vaccination.” For example, snappy poster ads with checklists are being considered: “Don't forget: File your tax return, change your wheels, put the Sauerbraten in its marinade, get boosted.” This is especially relevant … because on 1 October only triple vaccination will be considered full protection. Currently, 75.2 % of Bavarians have received two vaccine doses, and 58.6% one booster.

In the words of Voltaire: “I’ve only ever made one prayer to God; it’s quite short: ‘Dear God, make my enemies ridiculous.’ He granted it.”

The longer this goes on, the more ridiculous the vaccinators will become, as people with better things to do move on, and they are left with nothing but their core ranks of caustic, scolding, middle-aged schoolmarms. We’ve had the anger and the threats, we’ve had the police running down unmasked revellers in the park. The next act will be a legion of Christina Berndts delivering multitudinous lectures about “personal responsibility.” I give them a year of this, at most, before vaccination becomes one of the most loathed subjects in western culture.

UPDATE: Missed this hilarious tidbit from the article:

In the committee, the campaign was generally well received, although with numerous questions about details. Ruth Waldmann (SPD), for example, cautioned that provocative jokes like the one about the Sauerbraten might seem clever, but could also backfire. If you start a shitstorm on Twitter, you have to plan in advance to “catch and counteract it.”

Even they know they’re total idiots.