On the street opposite the bus station, a poster directs passers-by to the practice: "Coronavirus vaccination without appointment!" Their sons had made them do it “just like that, so that people lose some of their inhibitions about coming to the practice", the parents said unanimously. "Just talking onto an answering machine and making an appointment, that’s not how you get people vaccinated." Their son Michael (25) is studying medicine in Dresden, their other son Alexander (26) is a vaccinator at the Kassenärztliche Vereinigung Nordrhein (Association of State Doctors North Rhine) (KVNO). Both have been supporting their parents in the holiday season. 

Dr Paul Lucas uses drastic words: "The Coronavirus poses a danger - for everyone individually and directly. A community can demand that individuals don't walk across an oil field with a burning torch arguing that they have the right to use this torch so that it shines its light for them individually – when at the same time it can blow everything up for everyone else." 

He has been practising in Siegburg for 29 years. He sees the pandemic as something that has had humanity in its grip for almost two years, always taking new twists and turns, always bringing new insights and always requiring new ways of communicating. He is sad that parts of society have become so divided: "My concern is that this division is deepening. It’s one of the things I’m experiencing here in the practice, that there are many people you can’t reach with arguments." The doctor sees it as his duty "not to cut them off, but to try and understand them, to address their concerns individually, to take everyone seriously".