“There is glory in prevention”

Series, Jury Honorable Mention. Special prize by Al Mayadeen TV

"We can all consider ourselves lucky not to experience what our patients had to experience." Ivett Bodo is a nurse with the internal intensive care unit at Marien hospital. Photographed on May 20, 2020, during her shift in the isolation ward for COVID-19 patients.

"Coronavirus shows that we must enjoy every moment together. I will never quarrel with anyone again." Nadja Beer has just completed her training as a physiotherapist. She volunteered for service on the Covid-19 ward.

"My mother is a high-risk case. That's why I didn't see her during the quarantine. I missed her very much. In general, I found it difficult that visiting with family members was severely restricted and sometimes impossible." Nic Seiboldt is a special cleaner and disinfector at Akut SOS Clean, a company specializing in disinfection, pest control, and decontamination. Together with his colleagues, Nic cleaned government planes, train stations, nursing homes, and ambulances. Photographed on April 8, 2020, after a work assignment.

"Because we were so well-staffed, I felt pretty good during my time at the Corona Station. That sounds funny, but it never usually happens that I am responsible for only four patients at the same time. Usually, there are ten." Svenja Luik looks back on the first wave of the pandemic. She is a nurse at the Marien hospital. In 2019 she suffered from depression brought on by exhaustion. After a three-month break, she decided to return to work.

"We have employees who are over sixty. What we have achieved as a team over the past months is incredible. We often reached our limits because the strain was enormous. We had long days, lots of overtime. But we are very grateful to do the work that we do: because we are allowed to help. Unfortunately, we just can't always. What worries me are the economic consequences, with so many companies and business owners facing bankruptcy". Marcell Engel, crime scene cleaner and head of Akut SOS Clean. During the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, he and his staff were working round-the-clock.

"Although we sit around the breakfast table with more distance between us, we are closer as a team. Amin Quasem is a medical student and works as a nurse and healthcare worker at Marien hospital. Photographed on March 27, 2020, during his shift at the COVID 19 ward of Marien hospital.

Who are the people who test us, who help us when we have shortness of breath, who care for us when nothing works anymore? Although the number of people in need of care in our aging society continues to rise, and almost every second person dies in the hospital, it took a pandemic to make us realize how vitally important medical professionals really are. People in their home offices applauded from balconies, and politicians sang the praises of these "heroes of everyday life". The project "There is glory in prevention" gives voice to the people who are exposed every day to the invisible danger of the coronavirus. Since the beginning of the pandemic in March, Patrick Junker has been photographing nurses and doctors at work in Stuttgart's Marien hospital and the Corona test mobile. He has accompanied patients and their relatives, portrayed people struggling with the consequences of the lockdown, and photographed those committed to ending it.

“There is glory in prevention”

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