Disaster prevention instead of crisis management

Christine Prokopf © privat Could preparations have been made in 2012 for a possible pandemic? One thing is certain, at any rate: in a risk analysis which the German government commissioned a full eight years ago, the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (Bundesamt für Bevölkerungsschutz und Katastrophenhilfe, BBK) outlined quite clearly the danger of a global epidemic and its consequences for Germany. In reply to a query from wissen leben editorial staff, the BBK said that particularly in the health service the risk analysis was "not taken note of to any adequate extent". The result, added the BKK, was a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and insufficient laboratory capacities in the current corona crisis. For political scientist Dr. Christine Prokopf, this is not particularly surprising. In her doctoral thesis, completed at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Münster, she investigated how politics in Germany deals with crises and catastrophes. The conclusion she reached is that there has not been any change in attitudes so far - no switch to preventing, mitigating and reducing risks of disasters in advance. "Instead," she says, "for years now, politicians have followed the principle of just managing disasters.