Should one completely abolish the mask requirement, also indoors?
Health Minister Spahn prefers a step-by-step approach, an expert advises caution.
Munich - Currently, some politicians from different parties are calling for a complete lifting of the mask requirement in Germany due to falling incidences.
Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn and Karl Lauterbach, on the other hand, plead for a gradual end of the mask requirement.
Several scientists are now warning of the possible consequences of a complete lifting of the mask requirement.
"If, after the compulsory test has been discontinued, we now also drop the mask requirement in many situations, we are basically in an undisturbed life like before the pandemic," said Eberhard Bodenschatz from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen
German press agency
.
However, the pandemic could flare up again, after all, the coronavirus is still there and much more infectious due to mutations such as the delta variant.
"Then why shouldn't the pandemic come back?"
Corona: Without a mask requirement indoors "a fourth wave threatens"
Hajo Zeeb from the Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology in Bremen sees it similarly.
"Indeed, there is a threat - see Great Britain - a fourth wave if measures are largely terminated," feared the epidemiologist in an interview with the
dpa
.
"In this respect, precautionary measures remain important, especially for indoor areas, as well as a high vaccination rate and monitoring of the variants."
There were also words of warning from the President of the German Society for Epidemiology, Eva Grill.
"Masks are a simple and effective protection, especially indoors," explained the epidemiologist from the
Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich.
"It's also about protecting against more contagious new variants of the virus."
While the scientists are in favor of a mask requirement in closed rooms, the decision to abolish the mask requirement outdoors would find support. According to aerosol researcher Christof Asbach, the question of weighing risks ultimately arises in indoor spaces. "The probability of meeting an infected person indoors remains the same with and without a mask requirement," the President of the Society for Aerosol Research analyzed in relation to the
dpa
. "The risk of being infected is of course higher without a mask."
On Monday (June 14), Health Minister Spahn (CDU)
told
the
newspapers of the Funke media group
that the obligation to wear mouth and nose protection outside could in principle be omitted.
The mask requirement could then also be gradually suspended in regions with a very low incidence and high vaccination rate.
Virologist Weber: Mask requirement would end too early - only at "vaccination rates of 70 to 80 percent"
Researcher Bodenschatz, however, sees a danger due to the elimination of the obligation to test. One could encounter a highly contagious virus carrier without symptoms and be exposed to higher virus concentrations indoors. The increasing vaccination rate would slow down the number of new infections. However, due to the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant, a renewed increase is to be expected. "I'm curious what happens."
From the point of view of the virologist Friedemann Weber, the complete end of the mask requirement would come too early.
The scientist from the University of Giessen told the
dpa
in May: "At the earliest, when we have reached vaccination rates of 70 to 80 percent, you could think about it." Until then, it could take a while, according to the current status (mid-June 2021) only around a quarter of Germans are fully vaccinated.
(kh / dpa)
List of rubric lists: © Martin Schutt / dpa