Protective measures against Covid-19 - when is an end in sight?
April 2, 2020 at 8:39 AM ,
Der AUDITOR
It is invisible, was almost unknown half a year ago and yet a virus called Covid-19 manages to change the world completely within a few weeks. Many things that seemed to be self-evident and necessary are suspended: travel, parties, shopping and consumption in general. Contact bans and limited curfews mean that all this remains forbidden to us, and a big question is in the air: what happens next?
A change is urgently needed, that is for sure. The virus is not going disappear, instead, due to the circumstances we ourselves have caused, further pandemics will follow. The natural population barriers in wildlife, which used to be able to regulate themselves, have been destroyed by the man-made extinction of species. Mutations of pathogens occur which may, as in the case of Covid-19, spread to humans. Due to the high travel activity, these viruses spread all over the world in no time at all.
The strict protective measures are necessary and should be extended even further. Conditions must be created that allow the population to be protected in the best possible way and still get the economy running again. This includes the obligation to wear face masks, with which we primarily protect our fellow men, since we no longer spread the virus that much through droplet or smear infections. The prerequisite for this is that sufficient face masks are available - a problem that politics and industry currently still have to face. Furthermore, the rules of distance must be observed and violations must be punished more severely. A difficult topic is data protection. In order to be able to isolate infected people more quickly and find out with whom they have been in contact, monitoring via mobile phone must be intensified here; in this case, the health and protection of the population should take precedence over data protection. In addition, institutions such as tax offices etc. are already much better informed about our private data than it would be the case with movement profiles via smartphones - we should think about why the outcry is so loud here of all places. Large events such as concerts must be significantly restricted and regulated by a maximum number of participants.
Change is also urgently needed in the working environment. The current situation shows how many people can work from home, and there is reason to change that. This situation also makes it easier to keep the distance rule in the offices. Additional measures would be shift systems and personalized train tickets for the way to work to avoid overcrowded public transportation. This, however, entails the creation of additional capacities for bus and train.
An important improvement would be a sufficient number of rapid tests to find out who is infected or has already defeated the virus and produced antibodies. These tests would also have to be used at the borders. We will manage to survive the current crisis situation; it remains questionable whether our economy will be able to withstand it a second and third time, because the intervals will become shorter. Therefore, it is now necessary to think holistically. We need a healthy environment, the best possible protection of our population and an economy in which we can still earn money - at best with a fair distribution. To realize this we have to understand: the state, that is all of us, and also the economy, the environment and health are in our own hands. If we have taken the appropriate measures and accepted them, social life can take place again; albeit more restricted and in a different way than we have known so far.
By Michael Gütlich, CEO Dedere Deutschland GmbH
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