Kritische Blicke auf die Coronakrise und ihre Folgen
Kritische Blicke auf die Coronakrise und ihre Folgen

No Reason to Give the All-Clear

Karl Heinz Roth: Kein Grund zur Entwarnung [No reason to give the all-clear], in: Tagebuch No. 3 (March 1, 2022).

In his article, Karl Heinz Roth outlines the Covid 19 pandemic as “the worst respiratory pandemic since the influenza catastrophe of 1918 to 1920.” He describes the lack of preparation, despite all advance warnings, and the panic-stricken responses of those with political responsibility. Alternative concepts had been marginalized. The vaccination campaign relied increasingly on coercive measures, and the situation was aggravated by the rise of vaccination nationalism, especially in emerging and developing countries. The manifold consequences of the pandemic could only be mitigated in the rich national economies and nevertheless led to internal social polarizations. The commercialized health care system would already be overwhelmed by even a moderately severe pandemic. The all-clear should not be sounded. Rather, the health care system must be deprivatized and remunicipalized, the working and research conditions there must be improved, and the biomedical causes of the pandemic, such as environmental destruction, climate catastrophe, and intensive mass animal farming, must be eliminated in the medium term in order to be able to deal with the current and future pandemics.

Link to the article in the Austrian journal Tagebuch