These Corona sentences are bursting with political explosiveness!
Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (59, SPD) has admitted that the long closures of schools and kindergartens during the pandemic were WRONG – and indirectly blames a famous scientist: the virologist Christian Drosten (50, Charité).
In the ARD morning magazine, Lauterbach said: “In retrospect, for example, it was a mistake to keep schools and daycare centers closed for so long.” At that time, “but it was recommended by the scientists who advised the federal government. So the level of knowledge was simply not good enough”.
According to Lauterbach, mistakes were made “because the science wasn’t good enough”. His tough conclusion: “Back then, science was in Germany: The schools had to be closed because there were transmissions. That has not proven to be correct in this form.”
These statements cause a stir among corona experts. Because at the beginning of the corona pandemic, Christian Drosten in particular advised closing schools and daycare centers and keeping them closed.
Explosive: In the corona pandemic, Lauterbach and Drosten mostly shared a similar view of the need for tough measures and were among the most prominent representatives of the so-called “Team Caution”. Lauterbach is now holding researchers jointly responsible for the wrong decisions.
Government advisor: Lauterbach means Drosten
A government adviser to BILD: “Everyone knows which scientist the health minister meant in the interview. It is quite surprising that Karl Lauterbach of all people is now so clear in his criticism.”
Because Lauterbach also repeatedly drew attention to children during the pandemic and called for schools to be closed. However, Lauterbach was only a simple member of parliament until he took office in December 2021 – unlike Drosten, who had been advising the government since the pandemic began in spring 2020.
Lauterbach sees school closures as a mistake. Drosten is one of the most prominent advocates of measures in schools and daycare centers
︎ Drosten, who was initially skeptical about school closures, changed his mind in March 2020. A colleague sent him a “scientific article” about the Spanish flu, which raged at the beginning of the 20th century. Drosten said in the NDR podcast on March 12, 2020: “So you can say: American cities at the time of the Spanish flu benefited the most when the mayor quickly said: “All schools closed, no more events, and immediately !” We have to take that very seriously.”
︎ Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (48, SPD), who also described the school and daycare closures as a mistake in “Zeit”, said about the first Corona summit: “On March 12, 2020, at the Prime Minister’s Conference of the Chancellor, Christian Drosten impressively described what Corona can do. There was concern that the virus would spread quickly through children.”
︎ On April 29, 2020, one day before the Prime Minister’s Conference, Drosten and a research team from the Berlin Charité published a study on the infectiousness of children and warned against “an unlimited reopening of schools and kindergartens”.
BILD asked Christian Drosten if he agreed with Karl Lauterbach that, in retrospect, school closures were wrong. The request went unanswered.
