A. The corona-virus in Germany

• The risk to the health of the gene­ral popu­la­ti­on curr­ent­ly esti­ma­ted by Robert Koch Insti­tu­te: high
• The risk to the health of peo­p­le belon­ging to risk groups curr­ent­ly esti­ma­ted by Robert Koch Insti­tu­te: very high
• Num­ber of con­firm­ed infec­tions in Ger­ma­ny: 108.202
• Num­ber of con­firm­ed deaths  due to Coro­na in Ger­ma­ny: 2.107

—> Dai­ly updated case num­bers in the fede­ral sta­tes and world­wi­de.

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B. The situation for sex workers in Germany

Sin­ce mid-March, all pro­sti­tu­ti­on faci­li­ties, brot­hels and simi­lar estab­lish­ments in Ger­ma­ny have been clo­sed. Accor­ding to the Ger­man govern­ment, all ser­vices clo­se to the body that are not medi­cal­ly neces­sa­ry are curr­ent­ly pro­hi­bi­ted. In addi­ti­on, many fede­ral sta­tes and cities have expli­cit­ly ban­ned all forms of pro­sti­tu­ti­on. In our work we can­not keep a distance from our guests. The­r­e­fo­re the risk of infec­tion is very high for us. We under­stand that any kind of sex work with cus­to­mer cont­act is pro­hi­bi­ted until fur­ther noti­ce.  The BesD e.V. recom­mends sex workers in Ger­ma­ny to tem­po­r­a­ri­ly stop any acti­vi­ties that bring them into phy­si­cal cont­act with cli­ents.

• In the case of a vio­la­ti­on of the cur­rent ban on pro­sti­tu­ti­on, sex workers are threa­ten­ed with dis­pro­por­tio­na­te­ly high fines — the BesD stron­gly oppo­ses this. More about this in -> our press release.
• The BesD has suc­cessful­ly initia­ted a lif­ting of the ban on over­night stays in brot­hels during the Coro­na peri­od. More about this in -> our press release.
• For sex workers* who fall through all safe­ty nets and are not entit­led to sta­te aid, we have crea­ted the -> BesD Emer­gen­cy Fund — you can find out more under “D. Finan­cial Assis­tance”.

We know, of cour­se, that many of our col­le­agues do not have suf­fi­ci­ent savings and are urgen­tly depen­dent on their inco­me from sex work. Read more under “D. Finan­cial Assis­tance”. If you don’t see any other opti­on and con­ti­nue to meet cus­to­mers in per­son, find a few tips to redu­ce your risk fur­ther down in this artic­le under “E. Pre­cau­ti­ons”.

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C. What is important to know now

As in other count­ries, we in Ger­ma­ny are curr­ent­ly try­ing to delay the spread of the virus with all our strength and a con­cer­ted effort from socie­ty. On the one hand, this is inten­ded to pro­tect peo­p­le to whom the coro­na virus can be par­ti­cu­lar­ly harmful. On the other hand, it is essen­ti­al to avo­id over­loa­ding the health sys­tem as long as pos­si­ble. The situa­ti­on is serious. The time gai­ned will be used to deve­lop pro­tec­ti­ve mea­su­res for par­ti­cu­lar­ly vul­nerable groups, increase tre­at­ment capa­ci­ties and deve­lop anti­vi­ral drugs and vac­ci­nes.

• We don’t want to get sick our­sel­ves.
• We do not want our cus­to­mers to get sick.
• Tog­e­ther we want to pro­tect peo­p­le for whom an infec­tion can be par­ti­cu­lar­ly dan­ge­rous. We work and live tog­e­ther with many of them.

Par­ti­cu­lar­ly at risk are peo­p­le who:

• have a chro­nic dise­a­se (e.g. car­dio­vas­cu­lar dise­a­ses, dia­be­tes and dise­a­ses of the respi­ra­to­ry sys­tem, liver and kid­ney as well as can­cer)
• are over 55 years old

Take spe­cial care, if you:

• live tog­e­ther with peo­p­le over 55 years old
• live tog­e­ther with peo­p­le suf­fe­ring from chro­nic dise­a­ses

If you feel sick and suspect you’­ve been infec­ted: Cont­act the health depart­ment in your area by tele­pho­ne — regard­less of whe­ther you have health insu­rance or not. You can find the addres­ses and tele­pho­ne num­bers of the health depart­ments at www.gesundheitsaemter-deutschland.de. Alter­na­tively, you can also cont­act the hot­line of the Inde­pen­dent Pati­ent Advi­so­ry Ser­vice Ger­ma­ny or goog­le your local Coro­na Hot­line. To redu­ce social cont­acts: As part of the mea­su­res to rest­rict social cont­acts, citi­zens in Ger­ma­ny are requi­red to redu­ce cont­acts with other peo­p­le out­side the mem­bers of their own house­hold to an abso­lut­e­ly neces­sa­ry mini­mum. Here you can find the cur­rent gui­de­lines of the govern­ment. Stay at home if pos­si­ble.  Hygie­ne: It is very important to prac­ti­ce good hand hygie­ne, cough and snee­ze pro­per­ly and to avo­id clo­se cont­act. The main trans­mis­si­on rou­te of the viru­s­es is hap­pe­ning via mucous mem­bra­nes (mouth, nose, eyes) or indi­rect­ly via hands, which are then brought into cont­act with the mucous mem­bra­nes. It helps to regu­lar­ly wash your hands/use dis­in­fec­tants and to avo­id tou­ch­ing your own face. The most important tips for hygie­ne can be found at the web­site of infektionschutz.de (here is a direct down­load of infor­ma­ti­on gra­phic in Eng­lish).

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D. Financial Assistance

The BesD is in clo­se cont­act with coun­sel­ling cen­tres as well as local and natio­nal aut­ho­ri­ties. HERE you can find our con­stant­ly updated over­view on sta­te finan­cial aid for sex workers.

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If you are not entit­led to basic inco­me sup­port or other sta­te aid and are in an emer­gen­cy situa­ti­on: Cont­act a coun­sel­ling cent­re for sex workers in your town or regi­on. They can refer you to the right places. You can find the addres­ses and tele­pho­ne num­bers of many of the­se coun­sel­ling cen­tres at www.bufas.net/mitglieder. If sta­te aid is not appli­ca­ble, the coun­sell­ors can app­ly for a grant from the BesD Emer­gen­cy Fund for you, or you can cont­act our team yours­elf via . It does not mat­ter whe­ther you are regis­tered, or what your resi­dence sta­tus is. Neither a “who­re pass­port” nor a mem­ber­ship with BesD is neces­sa­ry to app­ly for help from our fund.

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With a per­cen­ta­ge of uninsu­red, alre­a­dy poor peo­p­le and peo­p­le wit­hout resi­dence sta­tus, sex workers are hit par­ti­cu­lar­ly hard in the cur­rent cri­sis. Many of for­eign sex­wor­kers have been resi­ding in brot­hels —  sin­ce their sud­den clo­sure, many of them are home­l­ess. They can­not return to their home count­ries at the moment as the­re are ent­ry stops and in most cases the­re is no money for an unplan­ned trip any­way. We also have a high per­cen­ta­ge of peo­p­le in sex work, who have just enough money  to pay for food and rent. The­re is a per­cen­ta­ge of sur­vi­val sex­work.  Com­bi­ning lack of a per­so­nal finan­cial emer­gen­cy fund and the lack of entit­le­ment to sta­te bene­fits means, that even now, as the cri­sis is coming to a head, some peo­p­le still have to enga­ge in sex work and look for cus­to­mers on the street or on the inter­net. The poo­rest of the poor are in exis­ten­ti­al dif­fi­cul­ties due to the cur­rent cri­sis. They need imme­dia­te finan­cial help to secu­re housing and food. In the cur­rent situa­ti­on, no sex worker should (have to) con­ti­nue to work out of money pres­su­re and thus end­an­ger her- or hims­elf and others! The­r­e­fo­re we have crea­ted the BesD Emer­gen­cy Fund. All dona­ti­ons go to sex workers in emer­gen­cy situa­tions, who are not entit­led to sta­te aid. Plea­se fol­low THIS LINK or click on the pic­tu­re below, to learn more on how you can help.

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E. Precautions for sex workers

What sex workers, who see no other pos­si­bi­li­ty than to meet cus­to­mers in per­son, should be awa­re of:

• Never accept cli­ents with a cold, cough or other cold sym­ptoms. If you noti­ce that a cus­to­mer has sym­ptoms, decli­ne the job.
• Wash your hands tho­rough­ly with soap for at least 30 seconds or use an anti­vi­ral dis­in­fec­tant spray on your hands.
• Ensu­re that each guest first washes their hands with soap for at least 30 seconds or, if neces­sa­ry, uses an anti­vi­ral dis­in­fec­tant spray on their hands.

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F. Alternative earning opportunities

Web­camming, pho­ne and direct chats as well as the sale of adult con­tent (pho­tos, vide­os) on plat­forms, whe­re no phy­si­cal cont­act takes place, are obvious choices within the indus­try. An exem­pla­ry sel­ec­tion of plat­forms are: adult­work, strea­m­a­te, Big7, my dir­ty hob­by, only­me­vip, cha­tur­ba­te, sex­pan­ther or adult­ti­me. In our mem­bers’ forum we exch­an­ge infor­ma­ti­on about alter­na­ti­ve ear­ning oppor­tu­ni­ties and sup­port each other. Here you can fill out the mem­ber­ship appli­ca­ti­on form easi­ly, anony­mously and online — we also have a free tri­al mem­ber­ship.

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G. More information

If you can read Ger­man, you can find the dai­ly updated infor­ma­ti­on — as well as all curr­ent­ly available ans­wers to ques­ti­ons about the coro­na­vi­rus and how to deal with it – on the­se offi­ci­al sites: Govern­ment | www.infektionsschutz.de. The­re are eng­lish ver­si­ons of all artic­les from the Robert Koch Insti­tu­te. In this (ger­man) pod­cast Chris­ti­an Dros­ten, Head of Viro­lo­gy at the Cha­ri­té hos­pi­tal in Ber­lin, pro­vi­des dai­ly updates on new deve­lo­p­ments. Dif­fe­rence to influ­en­za and other viru­s­es:

• In con­trast to sea­so­nal influ­en­za viru­s­es, the­re is still no basic immu­ni­ty to the new coro­na virus in the popu­la­ti­on.
• A spe­ci­fic the­ra­py or vac­ci­na­ti­on direc­ted against the coro­na virus is not yet available.
• More peo­p­le can beco­me infec­ted more quick­ly.
• Par­ti­cu­lar­ly vul­nerable groups are pro­tec­ted neither by drugs nor by vac­ci­na­ti­on.
• Depen­ding on the spread of the infec­tion, the available capa­ci­ties and the coun­ter­me­a­su­res taken, a high bur­den on the health care sys­tem may ari­se.
• The sym­ptoms of coro­na­vi­rus dif­fer from a cold/flu in that coro­na­vi­rus is often accom­pa­nied by fever and dry cough, but rare­ly by a drip­ping nose.

In the long run, the coro­na virus — like the alre­a­dy known flu — will occur world­wi­de. The indi­vi­du­al risk of fal­ling serious­ly ill in the event of an infec­tion still seems to be low. Howe­ver, we now know that an infec­tion with the new virus poses a hig­her risk, espe­ci­al­ly for the elder­ly and peo­p­le with chro­nic ill­nesses, and incre­asing­ly leads to seve­re dise­a­se pro­gres­si­on. Sta­te of Rese­arch: The dan­ger of an infec­tion draws its thre­at main­ly from the fact that no immu­ni­ty to it yet exists in our spe­ci­es. A spe­ci­fic the­ra­py or vac­ci­na­ti­on against the novel coro­na­vi­rus is not curr­ent­ly available, but inter­na­tio­nal rese­arch — among others bet­ween the Health Secu­ri­ty Com­mit­tee of the EU, the Glo­bal Health Secu­ri­ty Initia­ti­ve of the G7 and CEPI (Coali­ti­on for Epi­de­mic Pre­pared­ness Inno­va­tions) — is working hard to deve­lop a vac­ci­ne and rese­arch more about the virus.