Dhe heart of the student performs at its best even without sport, every day anew. Lina Baumann is 21 years old and suffers from pulmonary hypertension. Because the resistance in the vessels in your lungs is greater than it should be, your heart has to work harder to pump blood through them. Patients suffering from pulmonary hypertension are often not as physically resilient as healthy people. In the worst case, the heart fails to supply the body with sufficient oxygen. Then the sick people find it difficult to breathe, their circulation slows down and they get dizzy. Sometimes even fingers and toes turn blue. According to her doctors, Baumann is in good shape. She gets the right dose of medication and can lead a largely normal life. Or rather: you could. If it wasn’t for Corona.
In the pandemic, Baumann, who actually has a different name, is considered a risk person with her chronic illness. As a member of a vulnerable group that needs special protection. The pandemic has put people of all ages at risk. Disabled people, young people, children, even whole families. Many of them try to draw attention to themselves on social media using hashtags such as #risk group or #shadow families. Again and again they describe their situation there; complain that they are not seen or even forgotten by politicians.
The more the virus has spread over the past two years, the more Lina Baumann has withdrawn. “With increasing regulations such as the obligation to wear masks and especially after the vaccinations were available, I increasingly dared to take part in life again,” she says. The young woman has been going to cafes and restaurants again in recent months because people in the hallway wore masks and there were often strict access rules that excluded the unvaccinated without a current test. But that has been the end of the road in many places for a few weeks now. Appointments with friends in a café or restaurant have become unthinkable for Lina Baumann.
Hotspots offer vulnerable protection
It’s not just the student who feels the same way – the times for many people at risk have become significantly more complicated again. After the Bundestag voted for the controversial reform of the Infection Protection Act, it has been up to the federal states since the beginning of the month to protect people like Lina Baumann in public spaces. This can be achieved if the respective state parliament declares an area or even the entire country a so-called hotspot. Then the mask requirement will continue to apply in shops, for example, and shopping will be safer for those affected.
But of the 16 federal states, only two have made use of the state-wide regulation, Hamburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania – and the Hanseatic city wants to say goodbye to it again soon. A spokesman for the red-green Senate announced that it was not intended to retain the hotspot regulation in May. All other countries decided at the beginning of April that, despite the record incidences at the time, caution was enough for the time being. Since then, masks have only been mandatory nationwide on trains, planes, hospitals and medical practices. The new freedom that applies to many healthy people is a long way off for those at risk.
#Corona #risk #groups #freedom