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SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach: "Freedom Day ethically unjustifiable"
Photo: CLEMENS BILAN / EPA
The move by health insurance chief Andreas Gassen to lift all corona restrictions on October 30th has caused sharp criticism from health experts.
A "Freedom Day" based on the British model was "not ethically justifiable," wrote SPD MP Karl Lauterbach on Twitter.
The wave of the pandemic that would come would be too big.
It would be better to open it if 85 percent were vaccinated - until then, the 2G rule should apply.
Gassen had spoken out in favor of the end of all corona restrictions on October 30th.
“Based on the experience from Great Britain, we should also have the courage to do what worked out on the island.
So we now need a clear announcement from politics: In six weeks we will also have Freedom Day! «, Said the chairman of the board of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians of the» Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung «.
Green health expert calls claim "cynical"
The board of the German Foundation for Patient Protection, Eugen Brysch, thinks little of the claims of the health insurance chief. A "Freedom Day" to lift all corona restrictions is a great thing. But when you look at the doctor's offices, hospitals and nursing homes, "such brisk sayings don't seem to be received," he told the dpa news agency. Here, the restrictions for patients, those in need of care and relatives are omnipresent. "The associations of statutory health insurance physicians must first ensure that their suggestions reach the medical-nursing area," said Brysch.
The Green health expert Janosch Dahmen also criticized Gassen.
Among other things, the demand contradicts the attitude of the majority of general practitioners.
For the measures to be relaxed, a vaccination rate of well over 90 percent for people over 60 and over 80 percent for the general population would be required.
He called Gassen's proposal "cynical".
FDP finds debate "too early"
According to his own statements, the FDP health expert Andrew Ullmann believes that a discussion about lifting the corona rules is fundamentally correct.
But it was too early to give a specific date, said Ullmann to the broadcaster NDR Info.
In the coming weeks, the corona developments have to be monitored closely.
Numerous doctors also criticized the demand on social media.
Meanwhile, Gassen received encouragement from the AfD.
Top candidate Alice Weidel said: "The statutory health insurance physicians know better than any self-appointed health expert about the corona situation and the state of our health system.
(...) The emergency must not become the new normal.
Instead of the 2G regime and lockdown for unvaccinated people, Germany needs Freedom Day as soon as possible. "
rai / dpa
