COVID-19: «Never let a good crisis go to waste (W. Churchill)» (position paper)

With the establishment of International Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) the UN created a fundamental extension in the understanding of current and future policy challenges: In addition to the sectoral approaches (WHO, UNEP, UNESCO, UNIDO etc.), there was a need for an institution that evaluates the problems and the options for solving them in terms of their appropriate contribution to future sustainability. This succeeds best if the positions of the «others» are also taken into account with the special «sympathy» recognized by Darwin as a trait of advanced human person. If this succeeds, then particularly diverse networks form — as if by themselves — with surprising positive ecosystem performance and quality of life. Unfortunately, if the needs of the involved actors are not taken into account enough, surprising adverse consequences can also be expected. Thus, for these reasons, we are in an era of pandemics because too little attention has been paid to the individual habitat needs of wildlife and people. COVID-19 is just one of the possibilities: Over 800,000 other virus species could lead to more pandemics in the short term. This existential threat was not even an argument for the creation of IPBES. Today, it affects the daily lives of virtually everyone. Nevertheless, it is to be expected that the logically reasonable rebalancing in decision-making processes will fail in practice due to countless arguments that seem superficial in the short term. However, the personal involvement of COVID-19 gives hope that the pressure of the catastrophe will make it possible for the changeover process to be started in concrete terms. But additional measures must be taken if COVID-19 is really to be the last pandemic. To this end, the current defining approach of preventing contact between the infectious and the infectable until the world's population is vaccinated, as important as that access is, is not enough. But, for example, without exploiting the possibilities of activating viruses in the environment and, in particular, systematically exploiting the possibilities of non-specific defense, it will not be possible to end the pandemic