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Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU)
Photo: TOBIAS SCHWARZ / AFP
In the spring of 2020, the Ministry of Health ordered hundreds of millions of useless masks from China.
Now the health ministry of CDU man Jens Spahn is trying to get rid of the goods worth an estimated one billion euros.
That emerges from internal papers of the labor and health ministries, which are available to SPIEGEL.
The plans cause displeasure among the SPD and the Greens.
"I am appalled and shocked by what is happening in the Federal Ministry of Health," said SPD MP Angelika Glöckner, spokeswoman for the SPD parliamentary group on disability policy, to SPIEGEL.
Spahn made many mistakes during the pandemic, "but instead of admitting that, he is now trying to cover them up."
"People with disabilities are not guinea pigs"
Glöckner is outraged, among other things, that the unusable masks should be knocked off in special campaigns for people with disabilities, Hartz-4 recipients and the homeless.
“In doing so, he is deliberately endangering the health of these particularly vulnerable groups.
It's a monstrous process, «says Glöckner.
"People with disabilities are not guinea pigs to whom the remnants of bad decisions can be thrown," says Glöckner.
The project testifies to Spahn's understanding of people with disabilities.
People with disabilities were also criminally neglected when it came to prioritizing vaccinations, says Glöckner.
»The CDU / CSU must consider what conclusions it will draw in the Ministry of Health and for Mr Spahn.
It can't go on like this. "
Maria Klein-Schmeink, deputy parliamentary group leader and spokeswoman for health policy in the Green parliamentary group, was also appalled.
If the plans to pass on inadequate masks to disabled and socially disadvantaged people are correct, it would be "unforgivable": "It would mean that the weakest in society should be used by the Ministry of Health to cover up their own mistakes in obtaining masks."
"Cynical attitude" Spahns
Spahn had to take responsibility for this, said Klein-Schmeink: The action not only revealed "a cynical attitude, but would also be incompatible with the office of health minister."
With a view to the new plans to destroy the masks, the MP sees a possible deception of taxpayers.
The plan from the Ministry of Health includes storing the useless masks in the National Health Protection Reserve.
From there they should only be allowed to be issued in the event of a disaster.
In order to make them disappear, they should be destroyed after the expiry time has been reached.
According to an internal memo from the Ministry of Labor, "only possible in exceptional cases" would it be handed over to citizens.
mrc / cte
