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Privileges in the corona pandemic: Applies to everyone, not me

2021-07-29T10:47:55.973Z


The vaccination debate is evolving into a discussion of privilege. But if individuals think that fighting the pandemic does not affect them, it will be hard to defeat.


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CHRISTOPHER FURLONG / AFP

I have never been able to do much with Helge Schneider.

But I had nothing against him either - I just didn't care what he was doing.

I was all the more amazed at how angry I was when I read that he had canceled a concert a few days ago because he was unable to establish a connection with his audience in a setting with safety distances and ongoing catering.

As Schneider explained.

I have some objection to Boris Johnson and his politics. But hardly anything has embittered me as bitterly as his announcement that he and his finance minister Rishi Sunak would not go into quarantine after having had contact with the health minister who was sick with Covid-19. They are taking part in a pilot project that allows them to be tested for the virus on a daily basis. Indeed?

Johnson then retired to his country estate. The public outrage was too great for him to stick to his line. What did the man expect? Thousands upon thousands of Brits had to go into quarantine at home for ten days because they had run into someone who had tested positive for Corona. The result: supply bottlenecks, labor shortages, problems in the transport sector - all so dramatic that the rules have now been relaxed again. And at the height of all things, when people were standing in front of empty shelves in the supermarket, the Prime Minister announced that a daily test was enough for him. How far removed can you be from the realities of life of the people you rule?

Helge Schneider and Boris Johnson probably don't have much in common - apart from a self-image, which says that they cannot be asked to grapple with the same adversities as the general public is forced to do.

Of course, performing under corona conditions is particularly difficult for an artist who is particularly dependent on interaction with the audience for his type of performance.

There is only one thing to do: bring the performance to an end with decency and learn a lesson for the future.

Difficult to bear demands

Perhaps there were some teachers or therapists among the guests, whose everyday work has not become any easier as a result of the epidemic. However, as a rule, they cannot simply throw them away with the hint that under these circumstances they simply no longer want to attend classes or therapy sessions. Nursing staff that may be present, who had been looking forward to the performance for weeks, should - please, please - not take the artist as an example.

The aspirations embodied by Boris Johnson and Helge Schneider are difficult to bear. Ultimately, both seem to be convinced that the world owes them something because they, or at least their activities, are significant enough for special regulations. Sorry, but that's not how fighting a pandemic works. If the general public has the impression that some are more equal than equal, then it is only a matter of time before everyone wants to be privileged and no longer want to obey the rules.

Yes, but isn't that exactly what the discussion about a compulsory vaccination - possibly introduced through the back door - is about?

So about privileges?

No it doesn't.

Fundamental rights are not a privilege given as a reward for good behavior, but a right of every citizen.

Very good reasons are required to withdraw it for a limited period of time in exceptional situations.

more on the subject

  • Health expert on corona opportunities and risks: This is how you can get out of the pandemicAn interview by Veronika Hackenbroch

  • "I don't feel like it anymore": Helge Schneider breaks off the concert, exasperated

  • After the concert was canceled in Augsburg: the organizer threatens Helge Schneider with legal consequences

  • After the concert was canceled: Helge Schneider cancels any remaining beach chair appearances

  • Politics debates alternatives to compulsory vaccination: More freedom for vaccinated people than for unvaccinated people?

Fundamental rights are defensive rights against the state, they do not regulate social interaction.

It is therefore absurd for the state of all people to link these rights to behavior that it wants the population to do.

But that's exactly what it sounds like when Chancellery Minister Helge Braun declares that people who have been vaccinated will "definitely" have more freedom than those who have not.

Then to praise and extol the benefits of vaccination.

I myself have been vaccinated twice and consider it to be of no solidarity if someone does not get vaccinated without medical reasons - which may, however, include anxiety. But what I think or what Helge Braun means cannot be the prerequisite for the withdrawal of basic rights. This requires clear, unambiguous facts. A high number of false negative tests is indeed a compelling argument in favor of no longer equating the vaccinated and the tested. But it is precisely then that any impression must be avoided; moral categories play a role in the decision, and this has something to do with reward or punishment. In other words, no privileges for anyone when it comes to defeating the plague.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-07-29

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