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Patient in a clinic (symbolic image)
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Shortly before the announcement of a further shutdown, the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV) published a "Position paper from science and the medical profession on adjusting strategies in dealing with the pandemic" on Wednesday.
In the press conference at which the paper was presented, KBV boss Andreas Gassen said: "A blanket lockdown regulation is neither expedient nor implementable".
The opinion was drawn up by the KBV together with the virologists Hendrik Streeck and Jonaas Schmidt-Chanasit.
Numerous medical associations are listed as supporters, including the professional association of paediatricians, the Federal Chamber of Psychotherapists, the Association of General Practitioners and the National Association of Specialists in Germany, which represents 29 associations.
One of the specialist medical associations represented by the umbrella association has now distanced itself from the paper: The Professional Association of German Anesthesiologists (BDA) criticized the KBV's statement on Thursday, according to which a lockdown is in parts not the right remedy for the corona pandemic.
According to a statement by the association, BDA President Götz Geldner says that there is currently no alternative to significantly restricting contacts and thus the possibility of spreading the infection.
All other steps have so far not been sufficiently effective.
Much more than in the spring, it is now a matter of avoiding a collapse of the entire intensive care medicine in Germany - which would mean many deaths: "As a society and health system, we cannot stand idly by the avalanche, which could soon be solved," said Geldner.
Shutdown sensible and proportionate
According to its own information, the BDA has more than 20,000 members who "are currently working at the forefront of the pandemic in intensive care medicine," the statement said.
The association did not support the position paper of the KBV and had no prior knowledge of the paper.
The sister company of the BDA, the "German Society for Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine" (DGAI) share this view.
In addition, at a press conference on Thursday, intensive care physicians described the shutdown as sensible and proportionate.
The situation in the German intensive care units is still controllable, said Uwe Janssens, President of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (Divi).
Germany has an excellent health system and, compared to other European countries, much larger capacities.
But in a few weeks this could change dramatically with further exponential growth in new infections.
The Divi had not signed the position paper of the KBV.
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