[D66] Catastrophic increase of coronavirus infections in Germany

[R.O.]

wsws.org:

Catastrophic increase of coronavirus infections in Germany
Gregor Link
3 hours ago

The coronavirus policies of Germany’s federal and state governments have 
set the stage for a catastrophic development, threatening the lives and 
health of millions. According to figures from the Johns Hopkins 
University, new coronavirus infections in Germany yesterday reached a 
new record of over 12,500, with the death toll rising by 40 to 10,084. 
Across Europe, the total number of new coronavirus infections reached 
almost 8 million.

The virus is spreading faster and faster worldwide. Since January, over 
380,000 people in Germany have been infected with COVID-19, more than 
one in ten of those within the last seven days. According to the current 
Robert Koch Institute (RKI) management report, this applies to almost 
every federal state—in Bremen, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Hesse, 
almost one in five of total cases developed last week.

The fact that many politicians and federal officials have tested 
positive in recent days also highlights the dynamics of the pandemic. 
Besides Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn, who yesterday went into 
domestic quarantine with “cold symptoms,” the entire leadership of the 
Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (as the secret 
service is called) is affected. Labour Minister Hubertus Heil and 
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier are in quarantine due to 
contact with infected persons. There have been a total of 37 cases of 
infection among members and employees of the Bundestag (federal 
parliament) since March.

When the pandemic spread rapidly for the first time in the spring, due 
to the inaction of European governments, there were dramatic scenes in 
many regions of Europe. In the northern Italian region of Bergamo, for 
example, the military had to move in at night to remove coffins that 
could no longer be buried by the regional crematoria despite operating 
round the clock. In Spain, corpses had to be temporarily stored in 
Olympic ice sports arenas, while hospitals—similar to those in France 
and other countries—increasingly developed into infection clusters 
because nursing staff were denied any adequate protection.

Across Europe, the pandemic has already cost more than 247,000 lives—a 
loss of life surpassing anything that has occurred on the continent 
since the Second World War. Now, mass mortality is threatened on a scale 
that will go far beyond the previous catastrophe if no drastic measures 
are taken to contain the virus.

Hans Kluge, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Regional Director for 
Europe, said at a press conference on Thursday that COVID-19 is 
currently “the fifth leading cause of death and the point of 1,000 
deaths per day has now been exceeded.” In Belgium, infected nurses are 
already being forced back to work because otherwise, health care would 
collapse.

The same “work until you die” policy is increasingly being imposed by 
the authorities on people in non-essential industries and businesses 
that should have been closed long ago. For example, workers at the 
Weidemark slaughterhouse in Sögel, Lower Saxony, were sent back to work 
this week, even though at least 112 of their colleagues had already been 
infected with the coronavirus in the unfiltered, cold and recirculating 
factory air. Instead, the district authorities ordered a so-called “work 
quarantine” in order not to further reduce “slaughter capacities.” The 
theory is that workers “move only between work and home” and otherwise 
are “isolated.” In other words, workers live only to produce surplus value.

Carola Reimann (Social Democratic Party, SPD), Lower Saxony’s Minister 
of Social Affairs, spoke of a “good solution” that would “protect 
against infection” and “address the serious problems of farmers.” 
Regional spokespersons of the German Trade Union Federation (DGB) and 
the Union of Food and Catering Workers (NGG) declared that there was “no 
legal basis” to end this slave-owner policy.

The RKI’s status report makes an urgent appeal for “the entire 
population to commit itself to infection control,” without mentioning 
the government’s policy of opening up the economy. According to the 
Institute, “case clusters” and “outbreaks” are observed especially “in 
old people’s homes and nursing homes” and “in companies.”

The report documents a sharp increase in the proportion of old people 
among the newly infected since the beginning of September. In the “70 
years or older” age group, there has been a 75 percent increase in the 
number of new infections in the last two weeks, from 2,032 to 3,521. In 
mid-August—after the reopening of schools—two-thirds of the new 
infections were still accounted for by the under-40s.

Despite this deadly danger for the 700,000 people over 70 years of age 
who are in care homes throughout Germany, the federal and state 
governments’ latest “Decision to combat the coronavirus pandemic” states 
that “the respective regulations must not lead to the complete social 
isolation of those affected.” This must “always be taken into account.”

The media propaganda that young people and other “irresponsible” private 
individuals are responsible for the renewed ballooning of the pandemic 
has now been strikingly refuted by empirical surveys.

For example, the latest youth study conducted by the Social Science 
Research Centre Berlin (WZB) and the TUI Foundation revealed that 52 
percent of those surveyed considered the protective measures currently 
still in place to be appropriate, and a further 23 percent considered 
them “insufficient.” According to the survey carried out by the YouGov 
opinion research institute, 83 percent of young people also adhere to 
the measures and do so predominantly to “protect others” and to “protect 
their own health”—not so much because of possible penalties for 
disregarding them.

These were “similar figures to those we know from adult surveys,” WZB 
analyst Marcus Spittler noted on Thursday on broadcaster ZDF’s 
Morgenmagazin .

The results of the study once again make clear that the main cause of 
the dramatic increase in infections is not the private behaviour of 
young people and workers, but the opening up of businesses and schools. 
This is an international phenomenon and affects all age groups. As 
Michael Wagner, Professor of Microbiology in Vienna and Aalborg 
(Denmark) explained on Twitter: “SARS-CoV-2 infections now occur in most 
elementary schools in Malmö.”