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Corona: Bavaria's Minister of Health calls for the Infection Protection Act to be amended

2022-08-09T16:55:57.437Z


Not all state health ministers are enthusiastic about the draft of the Infection Protection Act. In a conference with Federal Health Minister Lauterbach, they criticized one point in particular: the vaccination intervals.


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Federal Health Minister Lauterbach

Photo: Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert / dpa

Karl Lauterbach sounds sniffly when he presents his plans for the autumn to the health ministers.

The Minister of Health has had Corona for four days, and in the morning he shared a photo of his positive test strips.

The symptoms are worse than expected, although he has been vaccinated four times and is taking the corona drug Paxlovid, Lauterbach wrote.

In the afternoon he sits in a digital booth with the health ministers of the federal states.

It should actually be about how people in nursing homes can be better protected from the pandemic.

But the federal states have already loudly announced in the past few days that they also have something else to clarify with Lauterbach.

For example, the question of how often Germans should be vaccinated now, when even the Minister of Health got it pretty bad despite the fourth vaccination and precautionary measures.

more on the subject

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Many of those present are not satisfied with the draft for a new infection protection law that Lauterbach has negotiated together with Justice Minister Marco Buschmann.

From October, the federal government will only specify mask requirements on trains and planes.

In other »public indoor spaces«, such as restaurants or bars, the countries should do it themselves.

One regulation in particular annoys some: Anyone who can show a current test, a convalescent or vaccination card that is not older than three months is exempt from the mask requirement.

So should people now get boosters every three months so they can sit in the restaurant without a mask?

Lauterbach himself found a snappy answer on Twitter.

"Do you seriously believe that people get vaccinated every 3 months to be able to go to a restaurant without a mask??????," he wrote in response to a request.

“If we really saw that often, we would change the rule, close the exception.

A general obligation to wear masks indoors or a test would then be the consequence."

On the one hand, the minister obviously wants to boost the vaccination campaign.

This is urgently needed, after all, a number of people have not yet received their first booster.

On the other hand, he knows that an up-to-date test is probably the safest protection against infections.

Only the FDP had just ruled out conditions such as 2 or 3G.

So the compromise.

The measure is still confusing.

Health ministers and prime ministers have criticized the measures announced in the past few days, in some cases clearly.

Bavaria's head of department Klaus Holetschek (CSU), for example, wondered "how the question of the vaccination valid for a maximum of three months should be implemented." He was convinced, he told SPIEGEL: "Anyone who is eligible for the third or even fourth vaccination should not wait .' In the GMK he wanted to 'speak very intensively about this subject'.

Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Stephan Weil considered the exception of newly vaccinated people from the mask requirement "not a wise regulation".

The SPD politician told the “Weser-Kurier” that people who had just been vaccinated could also become infected and infect others.

The chairwoman of the conference of health ministers, Petra Grimm-Benne (SPD), defended the new infection protection law on ZDF as a good basis.

"The thumb is definitely going up," said Saxony-Anhalt's Minister of Health.

However, there was no open argument between the health ministers that afternoon.

The representatives for Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria and Schleswig-Holstein reported concerns about the vaccination proposal, report those present.

Otherwise, it was more of a "chat," says one.

Stiko boss to attend GMK

Bavaria's Health Minister Klaus Holetschek later reported that he had called for strict communication on booster vaccinations by the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko).

He therefore suggested that Stiko boss Thomas Mertens could personally comment on this in the GMK.

In his opinion, the questionable exceptions to the mask requirement for those who have just been vaccinated and those who have recovered should be removed from the law.

He expects Lauterbach to adapt the law – "even against possible resistance from the ranks of the FDP."

It is important that the federal government now sets a clear course instead of "further unsettling" people.

So far, the communication of the federal government is "unfortunately disastrous".

The minister added: "It makes me very doubtful about the ability of the FDP to govern when well-known party members publicly criticize the draft law that their own justice minister has sold as a big hit."

In a statement after the conference, Lauterbach himself made it clear “that masks should be compulsory indoors in a tense pandemic situation.” It should only be possible to deviate from this in exceptional cases.

“This makes the emergency rule even safer.” He welcomed the desire for a nationwide approach.

But in the end, Lauterbach stuck to it: “A freshly vaccinated person has a relatively low risk of infection even if they don’t wear a mask.” Such announcements tend not to provide any more clarity.

Mfh

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-08-09

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