If it’s up to him, the Corona rules must remain: Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (59, SPD) is fighting against any relaxation with all his might.
︎ When the first federal states dared to abolish the isolation obligation, the Minister of Health spoke of a “mistake”. He called the plan to abolish the mask requirement on public transport “wrong”. He was “upset” at the Cologne carnival.
And anyone who slackens, Lauterbach insults as a populist.
“Now there’s a bidding war here: which country can relax first? It’s a bit populist,” Lauterbach told Bayerischer Rundfunk.
Now politicians and opposition experts are warning: Lauterbach is artificially prolonging the pandemic!
More recently, Lauterbach made it clear that the corona pandemic would not be over for a LONG time. Last week he proclaimed that the pandemic “isn’t over until it’s over for ‘Long sufferers they are sick with COVID'”.
This means: According to Lauterbach, the pandemic is not over when Corona no longer poses a threat to the healthcare system, but when “Long Covid” patients are healthy again.
MA: Can Lauterbach simply prolong the corona pandemic?
Expert warns: “This is unconstitutional”
Constitutional expert Volker Boehme-Neßler (59), professor at the University of Oldenburg, puts the minister in his place: whether the pandemic is over or not “is not an arbitrary and political decision of the Federal Minister of Health”.
Boehme-Neßler warns Lauterbach against violating the constitution: “It depends on reality. If the Minister of Health turns a blind eye to reality, he is artificially prolonging the pandemic. This is unconstitutional.”
And, explains the expert: In the current Corona situation, lifting the obligation to isolate oneself and wear a mask is not wrong. But sticking to the measures!
Boehme-Neßler to BILD: “Both the isolation obligation and the obligation to wear a mask in public transport are violations of fundamental freedoms. They can therefore – as the constitution says – be ordered only in exceptional cases and only under strict conditions.” And again: “If the restriction of a freedom is no longer necessary, it must cease immediately”.
Christian Drosten (50), chief virologist at the Berlin Charité, has now also given the go-ahead in view of autumn and winter: He assessed the rapid succession of the latest corona waves in an interview with the “ time‘ as ‘a sign of the imminent end of the pandemic’. It also doesn’t expect “really bad surprises” in the near term regarding virus variants.
CDU warns of permanent Lauterbach pandemic
The CDU is increasingly critical of Lauterbach’s Corona course. “If Mr. Lauterbach had had his way, the pandemic would probably never have ended,” the union faction’s health policy spokesman Tino Sorge (47, CDU) tells BILD. Of course, it is crucial to help those affected by Long COVID as much as possible. “But that can’t mean sticking to restrictions forever.”
Erwin Rüddel (66, CDU) also considers measures that restrict freedom, such as the isolation obligation of health politicians, to be disproportionate at the moment: “The risk of serious courses is now significantly lower than it was two years ago. Also, the incidence continues to decline.”
A request from BILD to the Federal Ministry of Health, asking what criteria the obligation to isolate and wear a mask in public transport could be lifted in the opinion of Health Minister Lauterbach, remained unanswered. Instead, a reference to his warnings.
Virologist Klaus Stöhr (63) calls for “a stepwise plan in which measures are linked to measurable parameters”.
