Jens Spahn: Transitional Minister in the Corona crisis

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Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn

Photo: Markus Schreiber / AP

When the acting Minister of Health Jens Spahn stepped in front of the cameras this Wednesday, he tried to correct an impression he had made in the past few weeks.

O-Ton Spahn: »The end of the epidemic situation has been misunderstood by many as a sign that the pandemic is over.

If statements made by me could be understood that way, then I wasn't clear enough. ”He also said this self-critically.

"The pandemic," insisted Spahn, "is anything but over."

The number of infections is rising rapidly in Germany: the nationwide seven-day incidence of the current wave has exceeded the high of the third corona wave in spring, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported the value 169.9 for Thursday.

The health authorities reported 37,120 new corona infections to the RKI within one day.

The numbers of hospital admissions, intensive care patients and deaths are also increasing significantly.

Kretschmer predicts the lockdown debate

In some regions, the pandemic threatens to spiral out of control.

Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) warned on Deutschlandfunk that there would be a new lockdown debate without quick action: "We know that in ten days we will have an absolute 'country under' in some hospitals," he says CDU politician.

"If we take too much time now, it will end with a lockdown, just like last year."

But the federal government's corona policy seems to have been shut down.

In addition to the already reactive rather than preventive understanding of the anti-corona fight of Angela Merkel's government, there is now a special situation: She is only in office - while the SPD, Greens and FDP are negotiating the future coalition.

But precisely because the health minister's room for maneuver is no longer particularly large, he is trying again to set the tone in the debate.

It is also an attempt to put his legacy in order.

When Spahn's term of office ends, there will be few important posts in the Union.

For the health minister, it is also decided how his career will go in the next few years.

While Spahn - see above - gave the impression a few weeks ago that he was preparing a kind of German

, he is now expressly concerned.

So today, so tomorrow.

The doctor officials recently felt the worried Spahn when it came to booster vaccinations.

While the interim minister urged that the vaccinations of all people be refreshed after six months, for example, head of health insurance, Andreas Gassen, had emphasized that booster vaccinations were only necessary for people over 70.

After a clarifying discussion, the doctors agreed.

Now Spahn is demanding that the federal states reopen their vaccination centers in order to carry out the booster vaccinations there.

The topic is likely to cause some explosives at the health ministers' conference that is currently taking place in Lindau.

After all, the majority of countries reject the move - for now.

Spahn also insists on restrictions for unvaccinated people according to the 2G rules.

Spahn could have settled the situation earlier

With Spahn's actionism, the fact that the Minister of Health could of course have organized the booster vaccinations earlier and could have settled the situation earlier in the fall takes a backseat.

The fourth wave does not come as a complete surprise.

It was foreseeable that the vaccination quota would not be sufficient.

And finally it became apparent that vaccination protection, especially in older people, wears off over time.

As is so often the case in the pandemic, politicians did not act with foresight.

The scheme has basically been running like this for almost two years: Politics promises an end to the state of emergency.

The situation is changing.

Politicians react.

Preventive Action?

Nothing.

However, the countries are again drawing very different lessons from the situation:

• Saxony only wants to let those who have recovered and who have been vaccinated in the restaurants.

• In Baden-Württemberg, rapid tests for access to leisure facilities are no longer sufficient; PCR is now being tested there.

• Bavaria's Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU) continues to call for an extension of the epidemic situation.

The traffic light bill is due to enter parliament on November 18th

One could now rely on the next federal government.

But the SPD, Greens and FDP are currently curtailed in their actions: They have to organize majorities for their draft law, which is supposed to replace the epidemic situation, without already being in office.

The draft is intended to make protective measures possible in the federal states - but the negotiating team rejects curfews and daycare closings.

The negotiators are not so in agreement on nationwide 2G regulations.

The FDP only sees this responsibility at the state level.

Green health expert Janosch Dahmen, on the other hand, calls for them across the board.

On November 18, the SPD, Greens and FDP want to bring their bill into parliament, the second and third reading should take place on November 19.

With this draft, the new government alliance is on the verge of repeating Spahn's mistakes.

Driven by the FDP, the coalitionists want to delete the paragraph in the Infection Protection Act, which would enable the countries to impose tougher rules than the parliament wants to provide.

The FDP wants to avoid another shutdown for unvaccinated people at all costs.

At the moment, it is hardly foreseeable whether the scaled-down catalog of measures will be sufficient in the long term to get a grip on what is happening.

Preventive action looks different.