More severe corona consequences than elsewhere?

Lauterbach becomes clear in ARD and sees "unethical bet"

Created: 01/11/2022, 3:24 PM

Karl Lauterbach (SPD) is a guest on “hart aber fair” (ARD).

© ARD (screenshot)

Health Minister Lauterbach finds clear words with Frank Plasberg.

He considers a search to be an “unethical bet”.

Berlin - No doubt: Frank Plasberg tries to lure Karl Lauterbach (SPD) out of the reserve in his show "Hart aber fair".

The moderator cuts the minister off several times, for example when Lauterbach starts to praise the work of his ministry.

Plasberg later asks provocatively: “Do you still believe that you can convince people with arguments?

When Lauterbach puts the word 'study' in his mouth - who is listening? "

Are the current measures enough to break the omicron wave?

Or have we already survived the worst?

Plasberg feels Lauterbach on the tooth with regard to Prof. Christian Drosten.

The top virologist at the Berlin Charité had spoken in his Corona podcast of "opening the door" and meant by slowly making measures more relaxed.

Lauterbach on "Hard but fair": "We don't need to open the door to the virus"

Lauterbach turns up his nose at Plasberg, emphasizes on the one hand "I really appreciate Mr. Drosten", reports on the "intensive" collaboration with the researcher, but jokes: "We don't need to open the door for the virus, it comes in by itself." Plasberg turns his gaze to Great Britain: there, a relatively lax policy is aimed at “contaminating” the population.

According to Lauterbach, however, this is an “unethical bet”.

However, the minister admits that the vaccination rate for people over 65 in Great Britain is better than in Germany.

But emphasizes that the mortality rate of the English transferred to Germany would have led to twice too many deaths.

The federal government is therefore “not available” for the English route, according to Lauterbach.

"Hard but fair" - these guests discussed with:

• Prof. Dr.

  Karl Lauterbach (SPD)

   - Federal Minister of Health

• Thorsten Frei (CDU) -

  First Parliamentary Managing Director of the Bundestag parliamentary group

• Claudia Kade -

  World

  Head of Politics

• Anke Richter-Scheer -

  Chairwoman of the Association of General Practitioners Westphalia-Lippe

• Antonie Rietzschel -

  Political journalist for the

  Süddeutsche Zeitung

Lauterbach does not see the increase in mental disorders in connection with the lockdown

The journalist Claudia Kade addresses the increase in mental illnesses, which have increased significantly since the beginning of the corona pandemic - especially among younger people.

Lauterbach listens with a petrified expression and questions whether this was the result of lockdowns, of stricter measures in Germany than elsewhere.

“You have to be careful, the studies don't give that away from my point of view.” So the overall situation - the “terrible pandemic” - could have had a traumatic effect.

The family doctor Anke Richter-Scheer complains about the lack of vaccine deliveries.

She had to order directly from the federal government, was currently only getting the Moderna vaccine and had to struggle with cancellations and overtime.

Lauterbach cautiously criticizes the “not undisputed recommendation that is not maintained in other European countries” by the Stiko and announces an in-house review that has already started.

It would be a "misunderstanding", according to Lauterbach, that "Biontech would be a better vaccine than Moderna".

Lauterbach is unimpressed by the corona protests and threats

Most recently, Plasberg addresses the Corona protests, revealing that a window was broken in Karl Lauterbach's office on New Year's Eve;

that there are regular threats of violence against the minister.

The minister reacted soberly that he was “always surprised” that many people were making massive threats by “giving their real names” and were therefore very easy to prosecute.

The minister explains that he is protected by the employees of the Federal Criminal Police Office.

He would be at a relatively high level and any threats would be systematically followed up.

Conclusion of the “hard but fair” talk

There was a lot of “grazing”, the moderator did not leave his guests room for discussion.

He would have liked to have done the show “Lessons from a difficult time”, Plasberg introduced into the talk.

A review was planned, but the spread of the Omikron variant got in the way of the project.

So the talk had a repetitive effect.

Or to stay in Greek: a Sisyphus problem.