Husband to the coronavirus. Press self infected but asymptomatic she gave birth in a peruvian hospital surrounded by doctors whose faces she could not recognise behind their protective gear. Its just one experience of giving birth during a pandemic for most women the conditions will be far less tragic. But still researchers believe the coronavirus could have an impact on Family Planning with women choosing to delay having children while the virus and the Economic Uncertainty that accompanies it continues to rain. This could intensify and already worrying downward trend in the global birth race for the past several decades fertility rates worldwide have been in decline but there are major regional differences in the share for instance the average woman will still give birth to 7 children in her lifetime in germany its less than 2. That has given rise to grave concerns about societys readiness to provide for rising numbers of elderly people whose pensions need to be financed by an ever shrinking workforce the problem is a ready well known in japan where one in 4 people are over the age of 65. Experts say previous pandemics like the spanish flu in 1918 provide only limited clues about what to expect this time the global birthrate did fall in 1919 but this was followed by a baby boom the following year usually attributed to the end of world war one. Its far from certain whether a similar boom could follow the coronavirus the pace of an economic recovery and the search for a vaccine are both likely to play a role. But demographic trends are one thing and personal stories im no other holding a healthy baby girl in her arms for money ill bet is memories of giving birth during a pandemic will forever be laced with both tragedy and hope lets talk about making babies with not. A fertility research. Institute not only will birth rates really fall because a lot of people have had a lot of time on their hands. Yeah i know i read the media reports as well and. There will be some walked on babies born that as a major trend affect future fertility rates is extremely unlikely and i would say yes birth rates are going to fall at least in the next few years or in the next year i let me tell you a bit more about yeah. I was just going to say were talking globally i guess are there differences between poor and rich nations most likely we will see different i was just about to talk about the higher Income Countries for example europe north america. Those countries we are seeing the lockdowns were seeing recessions. And we also know from Previous Research that makes and recessions calls for to lady to fall that least for a while so some studies have been conducted that people across the European Countries on their fertility planning and the great majority were planning for a 20 and 19 set that during the lockdown they have changed their mind and they are now either postponing the baby making and and these plans all together theres a few minority of people that said they changed their mind and they wanted to baby now but this is just a small portion of a couple. Of these changes or trends likely to become permanent. Well thats a very difficult question nothing is permanent and fertility so thats one of the features its constantly changing along with social change. You know classically sessions or pandemics when fertility fell it has rebounded after about 123 to 2 or 3 years but what happened after the last recession we had the Great Recession in 08 was that fertility rates fell and kept falling until basically today in some countries at least like the nordic countries or the us which has puzzled fertility researchers to begin with and now this pandemic is falling on top of declining birth rates and some high Income Countries and its unclear how the trends will actually look like longer term the reason im asking is because a lot of people believe this planet is full. And whats happened now with this pandemic is. Weve had social distancing and people realizing we need even more space and. You know the question is whether or not we have that. Well you know thats of course interesting. And i think there are a couple of factors that we have right now discussing that will likely have an impact on fertility and the social distancing i think is something we cant really measure the effect of yet but we can think about that and of course for baby making physical contact is necessary so we are thinking that fertility will be impacted by changes that relationship for example single people who are not finding partners perhaps right now or couples that split up after the stresses of the lockdown that will likely have effect on fertility that we cant really say how they will look like now. Youve mentioned obstacle effects and what about the mental and emotional factors involved. Yes Mental Health has been impacted negatively by the measures and the lock down and there is a correlation between Mental Health and fertility which is a negative one so that could go through the. Union formation or us or through the partnership stresses that could also decrease the interest in having a child to begin with its not clear how the direction of this effect looks like but i think it will it will play a role and sure to fertility also you asked about the Global Impact and i think what is going to be really important in predicting how fertility will develop in the lower Income Countries is how the culture of these countries will provide perhaps a filter that moderates how the recession and the Health Effects of demick will affect fertility for example thinking about things like like risk taking or emotional coping. That could be handled differently and by the populations on average in these countries and theres very Little Research on that and we are attempting to look into this into the future and our research from germanys monks funk institute thank you very much for talking to. Let me hand you over to our science correspondent Eric Williams hes been looking into some of your questions on the coronavirus. In electron microscope. And flu viruses look alike. They both have a corona. So why isnt flu a corona virus too. I understand your confusion maybe it makes the most sense to explain by drawing a comparison from the macro world that we live at sparrows for instance have have wings and they have beaks and they have feathers and so do eagles would you would you call them the same thing and you cant judge evolutionary relationships based on just one or 2 apparently shared traits in virological terms although influenza and coronaviruses are both single stranded r. N. A. Viruses that bear spikes on their outer surfaces and thats pretty much where the similarities end the coat that surrounds that genetic material in the 2 groups is is for example made up of very different proteins which which interact also differently with our cells and and that genetic material itself is very different coronaviruses are much larger than flu viruses and there are and they is made up of around 30000. 00 base pairs and in a single long strand thats more than twice as many as make up the influenza genome which is which consists of sort of several distinct segments so the way the 2 species replicate inside of our cells is also different and and flu mutates a lot faster so so dont be fooled by appearances coronaviruses and influenza viruses are 22 very distinct groups without a lot in common other than a vague visual resemblance in an electron microscope and the fact that they both cause respiratory infections. I thought eagles and sparrows were pretty much alike and that birds and i know were full of viruses well just finally before i let you go churches are open again for mass in the capital of the democratic republic of congo with a few you covered 1000 inspired rituals at this church in country priests and religious leaders walk through a decontamination tent and with face mosques and shields most services are being offered to allow full fuel people at each service ration as are encouraged to wash their hands upon entering mosques and social distance even in the pews. In south korea and many other countries churches have been criticised for causing socalled super spreader events where dozens in some cases hundreds of people have gotten sick from an infected individual by comparison the average coronavirus patient impacts just to the table. And of course a lot of other churches have been keeping Services Going throughout the crisis online. And seen again very soon here on the go before right. Our house is priceless. But the pandemic has shown what its really worth and just how much money is involved in the dont care we take a look at the numbers and show examples of how health care and business Work Together so that both profit. Made in germany. Human d. W. Literature invites us to see people in particular. Like to see some as the kids find strength growing up her. Right. To. Work and. To do the books on you to. Im scared that the work thats hard and in the end is a me youre not allowed to stay here any more we will send you back. Are you familiar with this. With the smugglers were lions and. Whats your story ready ready. I mean what numbers of women especially a victims of violence. Take part and send us your story we are trying in all ways to understand this new culture. Another visitor not the guests you want to become a citizen. In for migrants your platform for reliable information. Every day comes for us and for our planet. The ideas is on its way to bring you more conservation. How do we make cities screamer how can we protect animals and their habitats what to do with the waste. We can make a difference by choosing reforestation over d. For a station recycling over disposable Smart New Solutions oberstein said in our homes for those truly in need and we know that their uniqueness is what allows us to witness or buy the ideas the environmental sustanon called the 3000. 00 on g. W. And oman. From. Whom. This is deja vu news coming to light from European Union leaders including the german chancellor say they dont recognize Election Results that kept the russian president. In power these elections were not free and they were not fair and this is why we do not recognize the results of these elections. Just merkel says opposition protesters in belarus deserve dialogue with luka shanker but the president isnt taking her call also coming up a military coup