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Corona masks: Column by Samira El Ouassil

2021-01-21T17:25:33.746Z


The unequal treatment in medical protection has seldom been more obvious: the socially disadvantaged can hardly afford reliable masks. The state should therefore spend them free of charge - or increase the auxiliary rates.


Icon: enlarge

FFP2 mask: "Branch the money from the croissant rule rate"

Photo: Frank Rumpenhorst / picture alliance / dpa

Bremen!

Thanks!

The Senate intends to equip all Bremen residents with FFP2 masks free of charge.

So please!

Please for all federal states.

Because the current "mask-have", the mask requirement, the FFP2 masks in Bavaria and the medical masks in the other federal states, discriminate in their current form people from low-income backgrounds.

I really don't get it: the federal government cannot make a medical prop mandatory without ensuring that everyone can afford to fulfill this obligation.

Samira El Ouassil Right Arrow

Photo: Stefan Klüter

Born in Munich in 1984, is an actress and author.

In 2016 her book “The 100 Most Important Things” (with Timon Kaleyta and Martin Schlesinger) was published by Hatje Cantz Verlag.

In 2009 she was candidate for chancellor of the PARTY, which at that time was not admitted to the federal election.

She was recently awarded the Bert Donnepp ​​Prize for media journalism for her media-critical column »Wochenschau« (uebermedien.de).

Regardless of how much or little a citizen has to raise, this is first of all a fundamental problem of political decency and the recognition of socio-economic realities in Germany.

There are only two options for implementing a mask requirement that does not want to completely exclude part of the population due to their income situation out of completely misanthropic narrow-mindedness, but only two options: either one provides FFP2 masks and / or medical masks free of charge to low-income households relieve (yes!) or you increase the Hartz IV rates, as demanded by social organizations (also yes!).

With surgical masks in packs of ten, you can get 50 cents each if you're lucky.

That would be five euros at a time.

According to the Hartz IV contribution assessment, that is food for one day.

It is still the case that Hartz IV recipients have to deduct the money for the mandatory masks from their regular rate of 446 €.

€ 17.02 is earmarked for health care, including medicines and hygiene items.

One can obviously choose between the dignity of one's own personal hygiene and protection from the occurrence of infection.

And in view of the astronomical support for Lufthansa, a sentence by Söder that citizens »can also make a contribution in this area« sounds incredibly cynical.

Note: Better to be an airplane in Germany, especially during a pandemic.

As the journalist Tilo Jung asked at yesterday's federal press conference, the SPD-led Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs "does not want to adjust the Hartz IV rule set or help the poor in any other way so that they can afford the masks."

And before you write down all the cheap mask suppliers in the shorthand comments and we get into the exciting world of unit price calculation: even if the individual masks are supposedly not supposed to be that expensive anymore when purchasing larger quantities, please consider that one In order to benefit from these low prices, you still have to purchase a large number of items at once.

With surgical masks in packs of ten, you can get 50 cents each if you're lucky.

That would be five euros at a time.

According to the Hartz IV contribution assessment, that is food for one day.

Larger packs with cheaper masks are out of the question in terms of budget.

We are creating a situation in which a poor person is too poor to be able to afford to be thrifty by buying more masks at once.

Prices on the Internet rise like Amazon stock prices

The FFP2 masks that are required in Bavaria and are certainly absolutely sensible are much more expensive.

After the FFP2 masks became compulsory in Bavaria, I was able to watch in real time how prices on the Internet like Amazon share prices rose.

Both mask forms are single-use products that have to be bought regularly despite the oven or the self-made mask calendar, especially the surgical masks.

It is also astonishing that the Minister of Health did not take advantage of his opportunity to set the price for the masks at this point.

This made the German mask market a self-protection casino for the end consumer.

It is precisely for this reason that the German Association of General Practitioners also demands fixed prices for the masks.

In case of doubt, masks are reused because they are unaffordable or unavailable or their half-life is extended as much as possible by baking, drying and hanging.

What remains is a cold government and masks that no longer serve their purpose properly, exposing poor people even more to the risk of infection.

No matter how you move the beads back and forth on this existential abacus: a person without resources will be punished one way or another for having no resources.

It became particularly absurd when Jens Spahn declared on Monday that you could also take medical masks, which can already be obtained for cents.

"The surgical masks have stronger protection than the everyday masks and the FFP2 mask has the best protection," he explains.

So if you can't afford an FFP2 cake, you should just take the crumbly medical mask, whose self-protection is lower compared to the FFP2 mask.

Rarely has unequal treatment in medical protection been more obvious in terms of performance - especially because Söder had made the FFP2 mask mandatory for Bavaria shortly before.

Spahn's announcement is the verbalization of a medical two-mask society.

And yes, 2.5 million are earmarked for those in need in Bavaria, and yes, there are vouchers for senior citizens - but to be honest, I take it for granted that I would feel strange to mention it here with praise .

Then we should be happy here now that the vaccination is free of charge.

And all like: Yeaahh!

But if the restrictions persist for a long time, one must "of course also think about whether we have to help again at this point," said Chancellor Angela Merkel today at the federal press conference.

Yes, of course, let's take some time to think about it before we help - not that we inadvertently help ourselves.

Icon: The mirror

Source: spiegel

All life articles on 2021-01-21

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