Booster vaccination from 18?
Stiko chairman Mertens announces a general recommendation for “Markus Lanz” - and the FDP is moving on the question of mandatory vaccinations.
Hamburg - "Markus Lanz" looks at the worsening situation in the corona pandemic on Tuesday evening.
The chairman of the permanent vaccination commission (Stiko), Thomas Mertens, describes the situation as “unfortunately a lot worse than it should be.” “Why is it so much worse?” Asks host Markus Lanz.
Mertens: “Because we actually didn't manage to convince enough people that vaccination, as has been said many times, was actually the only way out of this pandemic that we had.
Above all, if we ultimately did not want to continue to carry out the other measures, i.e. the contact inhibitions and the transmission inhibitions, indefinitely. "
Stiko boss Mertens saw the current corona situation coming in June
Nationwide, "around 70 percent" have been vaccinated so far, Mertens explains, but in order to deal with the delta variant, "at least 90 percent" would have to be vaccinated - "the higher, the better". Mertens says: "Then we would have the chance to go through the whole thing in such a way that the problems that we now have with the overload of the medical system do not arise." The journalist Christina Berndt then complains that politics is "based on the principle of hope." “I let lead and the fact that there is currently no fully capable federal government in office.
Talk host Lanz then asked Mertens how long the current development had been foreseeable for him, after all, the virologists Christian Drosten and Melanie Brinkmann had already predicted it in January and February. The Stiko boss replies: “It was like that in July. And not only the extent of this fourth wave, which, like the other waves, had been very well predicted by the modeling that had already started, but also with the analysis of the causes. At the back of the same publication you can find the meaning of the individual groups that have already been mentioned, the vaccinated, the unvaccinated, the children and adolescents. And it was also and is clear that we in the mobile generation between 18 and 59 years should have achieved a high vaccination rate,to keep this entire wave flatter. And that just didn't work. "
Corona pandemic is coming to a head - FDP man Lambsdorff rejects responsibility for "Markus Lanz"
“When was that clear to the responsible people in the FDP?” Asks moderator Lanz in the direction of the politician Alexander Graf Lambsdorff (FDP). He thinks for a moment before answering: “To be honest, I can't say the time myself. Professor Mertens says he read a study in July. I can not say that. We were in the election campaign and discussed a whole range of topics, including climate change, Corona, of course, but also affordable housing, the economic recovery, we discussed all of these topics with one another. But when it was exactly clear that it would start again was of course much later for me than for Professor Mertens. So I think in the context of the general election at the end of September, beginning of October. "
Berndt sees the role of the FDP more critically and thinks that the liberals did not recognize the pandemic reality "until four weeks ago".
The journalist refers to the politician Marco Buschmann (FDP), who predicted that there would be no more overloaded clinics in winter.
“I think what is important to record,” Lambsdorff evades, “is that we are not yet in control as traffic lights.
I want to say that clearly, simply because this situation that we currently have in the country is not due to measures taken by a federal government that is set by the traffic light ”.
Lockdowns and School Closures?
Lambsdorff at "Markus Lanz": "Today you can't rule anything out"
Talk host Lanz flanked Berndt and quoted SPD parliamentary group vice-president Dirk Wiese, who had said that there would be no school closings and lockdowns with the traffic light. “Are you ruling out that here and now?” Lanz Lambsdorff tries to nail down. “I don't expect curfews for vaccinated people and general, nationwide company or school closings. Nowadays, as I say it clearly, nothing can be ruled out today. But next Thursday we will have a debate in the German Bundestag on exactly these issues. Where the elements from the toolbox that have been questioned and rejected by the courts are taken out and the countries are given a whole series of measures with which they can make a very robust and very sustainable and very targeted pandemic fight."The goal for the FDP is" an exit from a quasi-empowering situation for the federal government to be able to impose measures for the whole country bypassing the parliaments ", explains Lambsdorff further.
"Markus Lanz" - these were his guests on November 16th:
Alexander Graf Lambsdorff
(FDP) - politician
Christina Berndt
- journalist
Thomas Mertens
- epidemiologist
Muriel Kalisch
- journalist
Talkmaster Lanz jumps back to Mertens and asks why he didn't contact his editorial team in the summer: "Why didn't you call us and say: 'I need an appearance at your place, I want to explain loud and clear to the nation, what's happening here. '
Where was this outcry? ”“ Yes, you're right, ”Mertens replies with a sigh and explains that scientists and experts like him actually spend a lot of energy on passing on information.
But: "There has to be a willingness even with those who have to take in information."
Stiko boss Mertens announces at "Markus Lanz": Booster recommendation from 18 will come
Lanz then takes Mertens into the mangle and wants to know how often Mertens called and warned the outgoing Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU). “We talked to each other on the phone occasionally,” reveals Mertens, but the exchange via WhatsApp and Signal was more intensive. The Stiko boss almost resignedly to his forehead and admits: “In the form you are proposing now, I did not tell him. Because it was actually known. He knew that too. These data from the Robert Koch Institute were actually already well known. That wasn't a secret science, it was published data, you understand? "Mertens' warning:" If we don't start breaking the chains of infection today, things will get worse. "
With the general booster recommendation of the Stiko, Mertens announces completely surprisingly, is to be expected soon: "Tomorrow we will discuss the updated recommendation again and that will not take long and then the recommendation you are now complaining about will come too." “And that means down - how far?” Asks Lanz.
Mertens reveals: “Until the 18th” Lambsdorff, however, makes people sit up and take notice with his opinion contrary to the FDP about a possible vaccination requirement: “I think one can definitely discuss a facility-related vaccination requirement.
This is a subject that we really need to bend over.
I think that's a discussion, there is some movement in it right now.
I am open to it. "
"Markus Lanz" - the conclusion of the show
The "Markus Lanz" guests will analyze the situation of the corona pandemic on Tuesday evening.
Talk host Markus Lanz tries to hold the politician Alexander Graf Lambsdorff (FDP), as a traffic light representative, responsible for the current situation.
He repeatedly points out that the traffic light coalition is not yet legally competent and therefore limited in its ability to act.
The journalist Christina Berndt criticizes the tone of the liberals, which has suggested an end to the pandemic.
Stiko boss Thomas Mertens makes another TV exception for “Markus Lanz” and calls for quick action to prevent worse things from happening.
Towards the end of the program, the group looked at the Polish-Belarusian border, from where the journalist Muriel Kalisch reported firsthand.
(Hermann Racke)
