Covid-19 | Corona was not a great equalizer

Collective quarantine instead of good healthcare during the pandemic. Photo: dpa/David Inderlied The fact that people are affected differently in pandemics depending on their social situation and that poorer people in particular have a greater risk of infection, become more seriously ill and die more often is not a new finding. These patterns have been observed in almost all infectious epidemics, for example the 1918 flu pandemic or the AIDS pandemic. The fact that this established knowledge went unnoticed during the Covid-19 pandemic and did not lead to political countermeasures is one of the biggest failures of German Corona policy, according to health scientist Rolf Rosenbrock, who sits as an expert on the Bundestag's Corona Study Commission for Die Linke.

As Claudia Hövener, professor of health-related social work at the Alice Salomon University, pointed out in the commission's September hearing, the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic hit a German population in which health was already unequally distributed. »Poverty makes you sick. “We have known for a long time in Germany that the social situation is closely linked to illness; it is well documented,” says Hövener. Stress, poor nutrition and previous illnesses weaken the immune system. In addition, social factors influence access to health care and the risk of infection, for example through living conditions. Vulnerability is therefore not a property of certain groups, but rather arises from the initial situation and access, says Hövener. During the pandemic, however, the focus was primarily on the chronically ill and the elderly as “vulnerable groups” who should be protected through measures. Despite higher infection rates from the second wave onwards in poorer residential regions, the knowledge did not translate into political action. Exceptions were a few model projects, such as the use of vaccination buses and special health professionals in Bremen. Instead, in regions with poor social conditions, there were, on average, fewer testing and vaccination offers available.

“We have known for a long time in Germany that the social situation is closely linked to illness.”

It is not the first time that, in the course of the study commission's work, experts have pointed to the pandemic as a magnifying glass that did not create inequality, but rather made it more visible and reinforced it. This pattern was also evident in relation to the psychological stress on children and young people caused by the lockdowns. At the June meeting of the Enquete Commission, Katharina Spieß, Director of the Federal Institute for Population Research, stated that she would "never speak of a Corona generation" because the level of impact was so different. On October 12th, the situation of the younger generation will be the focus of the study commission.

The AfD anticipated this point and invited the student teacher Filip Dimov, AfD council member for the city of Siegburg, to the hearing in September. He reported how his freedom as a student was taken away during the pandemic. The AfD thus continued to stick to its narrative that measurable health consequences of the pandemic were caused solely by the measures. However, the supposedly true purpose of the political measures is not stated; it remains only speculative suggestions. The AfD expert, Stefan Homburg, a well-known spreader of Corona false information, asked Dimov, for example, whether he thought he had been a victim of “psyop” (short for “psychological operations”), i.e. psychological warfare. As expected, the AfD members were not interested in the topic of social inequality.

But science-denying political reactions to the pandemic are not only coming from the extreme right. The federal government's austerity policy also runs counter to all the findings of the study commission. The statutory health insurance savings reform and cuts in the social sector will weaken rather than increase social resilience for the next crisis.

Collective quarantine instead of good healthcare during the pandemic. Photo: dpa/David Inderlied  

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