Corona review: Why we finally need a smart debate

Opinion

Every crisis offers opportunities. This also applies to the corona pandemic. We are not talking about the profits of mask profiteers. We are not talking about the unexpected prominence of numerous scientists and countless conspiracy theorists. It is about opportunities for progress that we should take advantage of, but that we are currently squandering together. We get upset, polemicize, and don’t tackle the tough issues, of which there are many. Is this already digital dementia or just simple indifference?

One of the toughest things to do is our sloppy preparation for another “once-in-a-century event” of this kind (hopefully it really lasts that long!). For the next pandemic, in other words. If it happens again, we should really know what we want. After all, plans already existed on paper in 2020. But there was a lack of practice, experience, and ideas for securing the well-being of all population groups. Now we all have empirical knowledge about this. But planning for the future is once again not being taken seriously. Do we hate learning? Are we only living for the chatter of the moment?

Meanwhile, all sorts of strange viruses have appeared in the news: monkeypox, Nipah, oropouche, mostly in the infotainment style. None of them became pandemic (bird flu, however, has a serious chance of becoming a pandemic). One could almost believe that the constant threat of an epidemic in the globalized world has already been repressed. Demands for a real reappraisal of the Corona period are therefore absolutely justified. But in everyday communication, the obstructive patterns of degenerate debate culture repeat themselves like the daily Groundhog Day: slapstick, smokescreens and political diversionary maneuvers. The summer theater surrounding the “RKI protocols” is a silly charade. Pseudo-revealers construct a scandal from files that are at best interesting from an administrative history perspective, which merely obscures the deeper problems. Simpletons become their duped but often enthusiastic claqueurs.

Corona data situation: currently good news

The real challenges lie deeper and require more effort. So why not roll up your sleeves now? At the moment, threats from the virus hardly appear acute. The corona wave has been stagnating since calendar week 31, which ended on August 4. According to the RKI weekly report, visits to the doctor for respiratory diseases are declining, and the viral load detected in wastewater monitoring is stable. The virus is present, continues to cause long Covid, and vaccinations are still advisable for many of us. But Covid-19 recently only accounted for 19 percent of respiratory diseases. The omicron variant once again completely dominates and rarely leads to serious cases. Intensive care medicine is back to normal.

But would this temporary all-clear be of any comfort to you if you were 14 or 15 years old at the height of the crisis, moved involuntarily and have been friendless since then? Depressed for eight months (average duration of illness among adolescents) but without a place to go to therapy? New cases of depression among five to seventeen-year-olds increased by eight percent, possibly underdiagnosed due to the pandemic. Significant obesity among children and adolescents increased in frequency by eleven percent.

The lack of care for anxiety disorders and the deterioration of the social situation of children from low-income families were also blatant. Internships disappeared, sports clubs plunged into crisis. Worldwide, people under 25 showed the highest levels of loneliness, an enormous risk factor for all dimensions of health.

Let’s talk about coming to terms with the past like responsible citizens!

Does this alarm us? Are we interested in a more social policy for younger people? Do we demand a real modernization of schools? No! Instead, we have paranoid nonsense for imaginary investigative committees and the progress-killing fetish politics of the ultra-orthodox debt-stoppers. Empathy is avoided as much as possible, instead there is superficial agitation and C-list celebrity babble about the alleged lack of hard work of Generation Z. Some 50-year-olds seriously believe that they “built the country” and are still philosophizing on Facebook with their faces bright red about Chinese biotechnology laboratories.

This is what moral decadence looks like. We learn nothing, and the next disaster could be a clone of the last.

Thankfully, there are people who do not give up and create really important knowledge. Last Sunday, for example, researchers led by Australian Megan Lim published a major international study on how social contacts can be successful under pandemic conditions. They found that young people invested additional time in strong relationships during the epidemic. However, weaker connections suffered, and that is alarming because it threatens precisely what we call our social network. The many acquaintances that are important when you need help with specific problems, placement in jobs and opportunities, inspiration and ideas. Younger people in particular cannot thrive without this network.

It is now recognized that school closures should be avoided as far as possible. Those responsible admit that things should not have gone this way. But that is not nearly enough. Sustainable investments in the education sector are needed. But instead, bans on cell phones on school premises are being debated, moralized and trivialized.

Every crisis offers opportunities, but we are currently wasting a very profound one. To put it bluntly, we need a structured debate about what our dream pandemic should look like. Constructive, with a lot of empathy and as little bullshit as possible. Because Corona was certainly not our last test.