Corona deniers among medical professionals: Doctors on the wrong track

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Doctors can make themselves liable to prosecution with incorrectly issued medical certificates

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zerocreatives / imago images / Westend61

Even doctors are sometimes not immune to acute ignorance of disease.

At Bodo Schiffmann, a kind of demigod in white for self-proclaimed lateral thinkers, the police arrived for the second time in mid-February.

Practice and private rooms were searched.

It was about allegedly wrongly issued certificates for exemption from mouth and nose protection.

According to the investigators, some of the alleged patients of the doctor from Sinsheim lived hundreds of kilometers away.

Doctors like Schiffmann, who openly and at demonstrations fight against hygiene rules and thus make numerous attempts to contain the pandemic, are a tiny minority in the medical profession.

But they are loud - and dangerous.

Because through their training and their work, doctors enjoy a double leap of faith: with their patients, who often have no choice but to listen to their advice, but also in public because of their academically acquired expertise.

Of course, doctors sometimes have different opinions on detailed scientific questions.

But the Schiffmann case shows that the positioning in the corona pandemic is more fundamental.

And Schiffmann, who left a written question about his handling of mask certificates unanswered, is not an isolated case.

This is shown by answers from professional self-administration.

Hundreds of suspected cases nationwide

First of all: There is no nationwide survey of pandemic skeptics in the medical profession.

Feedback from the medical associations, however, suggests that the number of doctors who do not take the corona pandemic particularly seriously or, in the worst case, even deny it, is at least in the three digits.

The Berlin Medical Association alone has reported more than 250 complaints relating to 150 doctors since the pandemic began.

In at least 27 cases it is said to be a lack of care or even deliberately wrong issuing of mask certificates.

The number of complaints also includes 25 cases in which doctors made themselves unpopular with corona-denying patients.

Because of these peculiarities, the numbers of the individual state medical associations are difficult to compare with one another.

For example, as of January, the Baden-Wuerttemberg State Medical Association has reported around 280 complaints about compliance certificates, mask refusal or corona denial - but "currently" cannot say how many doctors are against these indications.

Well-known corona skeptics in the medical profession are likely to make more than one complaint, as the Schiffmann case suggests.

The chamber attorneys of the district medical associations had to deal with around a third of the complaints.

In Saarland - seven complaints about seven different practices - there is anger because of distance rules and waiting rooms that are too full.

The vastly different case numbers in Berlin, Baden-Württemberg and Saarland are also likely to be related to the total number of doctors registered in the respective chambers: that is 6800 doctors in Saarland - compared to 34,000 in the capital and 70,000 in the south-west of the country.

In Saarland, however, there is also a different case in which a doctor wanted to reject AfD voters and lateral thinkers as patients.

Chambers issue reprimands and fines

The chambers express concern about corona relativizers in their own ranks.

"The skeptics damage the reputation of the entire profession," says the spokesman for the Berlin Medical Association.

“Personally, I find it shocking,” says Pedram Emami, President of the Hamburg Medical Association, “that medical colleagues deny the danger of a virus that, if infected, firstly harbors serious health risks and consequences for those affected - especially from the risk groups - and secondly Represents a challenge for the health system as a whole, especially since many of their claims lack the evidence base ”.

According to Emami, it is particularly bad that they »abuse the competence and credibility« that many attribute to the medical profession, thus preventing people from adhering to the hygiene rules that are necessary to protect against infection.

But Emami's Chamber also has complaints from around 120 doctors - in relation to the 15,000 currently active doctors there, this affects around 0.8 percent.

The chambers want to severely sanction violations of corona regulations in the medical profession.

You can issue reprimands and impose fines.

A professional court can also impose fines well into the five-digit range.

A procedure is also conceivable at the end of which a suspension of the license or even a revocation can be ordered.

In Baden-Württemberg, the licensing authority of the State Health Office is examining the Schiffmann case, for example, and his opinion is now available.

Medic reported for sedition

Two professional investigations are currently known from Thuringia, at the same time there is also a criminal proceeding there because of the issuance of presumably false mask certificates.

The State Medical Association of Saxony has reported three criminal charges so far.

Shortly before Christmas, the Saxon State Medical Association even reported a doctor for sedition.

She is said to have publicly compared the mask with the so-called Star of David, a compulsory marking that everyone who was considered to be Jews under National Socialism had to wear.

In twelve cases, the health authorities in Saxony were also informed so that they could check the practices for compliance with the corona rules.

According to the spokesman for the Lower Saxony Medical Association, there are also cases in which "friendly instructions" remain, for example when the doctor in principle only »has expressed his skepticism about individual corona measures that he has a problem with it Has".

He appeals to the 43,000 doctors in his chamber, who have so far received 80 complaints due to alleged denial of Corona: "A doctor's office is not a place for political agitation."

The group "Doctors for Enlightenment" has been straining this principle for months.

The chambers distance themselves from it, but as long as the statements of the doctors who belong to these groups are "within the scope of freedom of expression (...), we as the medical association cannot act here," says the medical association from Saxony- Stop.

The State Medical Association of Baden-Württemberg also supervises the Sinsheim doctor Bodo Schiffmann.

Your attitude towards the corona skeptics in your own ranks is clear: For the vast majority of doctors there, it is »more than regrettable« that representatives of their profession »trivialize the dangers of the corona virus, the belief in the alleged› dark forces behind it ‹Disseminate and scientifically proven to scatter false information«.