"it will have permanent winners and losers"

 "We should pause and reflect on comments by the German Allensbach polling institute. Allensbach is not better, or worse than others in tracking voter preferences for national elections, but they are known to produce good early warning signals about shifting moods in the population. Now is such a moment. 

Renate Köcher, the head of the institute, has come out with a warning the mood in the country is turning for the worse. The crisis is becoming existential for a very large number of people. During the first lockdown, the Germans rallied behind the government and eagerly sought information from the media. A year later, a growing number are saying that they are in a worse state than they were a year ago, both materially and psychologically. What is becoming clear is that the crisis destroys livelihoods. There is an overwhelming sense that selfishness, aggression, and impatience have become more prevalent, Köcher told Handelsblatt in an interview. A particular feature of this crisis is that it will have permanent winners and losers. This aspect, she says, is not prevalent at all in the public debate. Only about 10% of the Germans fall into the group of Covid-19 deniers. But many of those who are not in this group feel they can't speak their mind for fear of being branded extremist. The anger is turning against the media.

These comments support the view that this pandemic is a structural slump. A pandemic is a quintessential macro event. But it gives rise to a micro crisis. The public debate focuses almost entirely on the macro side - impact on GDP, measured unemployment. But this time, there is a real possibility that we get the macro broadly right, but the micro completely wrong."

Trecho retirado de "When the pandemic destroys livelihoods"