Unhappily put or misled?

Lanz grills NRW Health Minister Laumann

Created: 01/13/2022, 09:26 AM

The panel discussion at “Markus Lanz” (ZDF).

© ZDF (screenshot)

NRW Health Minister Karl-Josef Laumann runs on "Markus Lanz": Did his unsuccessful statement lead to a loss of confidence in the Corona policy?

Hamburg - He seems to have known even before the show that it could be uncomfortable for CDU politician Karl-Josef Laumann to be a guest at "Markus Lanz". While a clip is running with statements from the end of October when he said that more than 90 percent of the North Rhine-Westphalian retirement home residents were already boosted, he puts on his reading glasses and picks up a speech slip. "Is that true, Mr. Laumann?" Asks talk show host Lanz the absent-minded Minister of Health of North Rhine-Westphalia.

“Well, that's how it was,” Laumann replies with caution, “at the time when I said this in a press conference, 90 percent of the nursing homes in North Rhine-Westphalia had had a booster vaccination in their nursing homes.

But that does not mean that 90 percent of all people in old people's homes have been vaccinated. ”“ You just said that, Mr. Laumann, ”asked FDP politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann.

Karl-Josef Laumann in "Markus Lanz" in the review: "This is something that is really worrying"

Laumann maneuvers and squirms before finally admitting that not 90 percent have been vaccinated, but only 90 percent of the old people's homes have received a vaccination offer. He and his Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) had said that 90 percent of people in old people's homes had been vaccinated. “The fatal impression that arises,” says moderator Lanz, “is that they artificially keep the alarm level up. That is the bad suspicion that then comes into play. ”“ Yes, and that is the danger, ”says Strack-Zimmermann,“ and that is now also highly dangerous in terms of socio-political or socio-political ”.

“Those who are downright militant against the compulsory vaccination,” Strack-Zimmermann continues, “and take their so-called walks in the cities and towns, with a high level of aggression, where Nazis like to interfere in order to spread this outrage for themselves use - this is something that is really worrying.

And that is of course stimulated by imprecision or consciously or unconsciously wrong numbers. "

"Markus Lanz" - these were his guests on January 12th:

• Karl-Josef Laumann (CDU)

  - politician

• Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP)

  - politician

• Robin Alexander

  - journalist

• Christina Berndt

  - journalist

• Diana Zimmermann

  - journalist

“So the question again, Mr. Laumann - how do you come up with something like that? It must have been clear to you that these numbers do not even exist, ”said talk host Lanz once again addressing the Union politician. He repeats his answer without admitting a mistake: “We told our health authorities in the districts: Clarify whether vaccination offers have been made in all old people's homes. The number was, the feedback from the 54 health authorities: We made a vaccination offer in 90 percent of the old people's homes. That doesn't mean that 90 percent of people are vaccinated. "

“I understand that,” replies the moderator Lanz, “but you communicated something different politically, Mr. Wüst too.” “I'll say again,” Laumann repeats, “the point was that we had a vaccination offer in 90 percent of the old people's homes "Yes, I understand that, but you said something else", Lanz persists.

Annoyed, Laumann rolls his eyes and looks at the studio ceiling.

Markus Lanz grills NRW Health Minister Laumann because of fuzzy booster statistics

"The way Markus Söder communicated something else," adds Lanz and then cites research by the WDR. He asked the health authorities and received lower numbers, host Lanz lists some of them: “In Hagen the rate was 43 percent, Minden-Lübbecke 66, in the district of Viersen 75 percent. You communicate 90 percent of the time with the Prime Minister. "

"No, I have, I really value it now, we have always communicated from the ministry: 90 percent of the old people's homes have been vaccinated. You can perhaps express yourself unhappy, but we from the Ministry have always presented this 90 percent to the WDR, to the press and to everyone else. "" May I quote again? " Mr Wüst said on November 9th, I quote literally: 'We started with it very early in North Rhine-Westphalia, which is why we have already provided over 90 percent of the people in the nursing homes with the booster vaccination, the booster vaccination. "" Yes, well ", says Laumann and throws his head to one side. “Yes, that's not right,” he finally admits. “That's rubbish,” judges Lanz.

Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann jumps aside Karl-Josef Laumann at “Markus Lanz” - Lanz is upset

Strack-Zimmermann then questions what such a discussion should bring: “We don't have unlimited airtime,” she says and prefers to talk about other things: “I think what moves people is: Can my children attend Go to school?

Families are very concerned that there will be a lockdown again.

Can I finally see the inside of a university after the fourth semester?

These are the things that preoccupy people in an unimaginable way.

Up to: Can I continue my business?

What if Omikron comes and a lot are infected? "

"Ms. Strack-Zimmermann, you are doing this very cleverly," interrupts talk show host Lanz the FDP politician, "but what are we currently experiencing? Is that the loyalty to the coalition partner in North Rhine-Westphalia? ”“ Oh no, nonsense, ”the FDP politician dismisses with a frown. “Yes!” The moderator suspects, “You are now very cleverly trying to redirect the arrow around Karl-Josef Laumann.” Strack-Zimmermann: “I don't want to redirect the arrow at all, I just want to say that politics deals with the realities have to deal with. I have absolutely no reason to protect anyone here. "

Instead of discussing unsuccessful communication, Strack-Zimmermann would prefer to look to the future: “Because we have now had upheavals at these demonstrations.

And you can't say they're just people who haven't heard the boom or they're all solid posts.

There are educated people there who no longer feel taken with them and have an insane potential for aggression. "

Corona statistics not always reliable?

Lanz: "I'm running out of argument"

Talk host Lanz links Strack-Zimmermann's evasive action with the point he wants to make: “They are exactly where these numbers come in, and it turns out that these numbers are not right. What do we tell them then? I'm running out of argument. ”In a discussion with Alice Weidel (AfD) on his show, he vehemently contradicted the idea that vaccination should be compulsory. “Because I believed what I was told here,” says Lanz, confused. Neither Laumann nor Strack-Zimmermann have an answer to this.

The journalist Robin Alexander complains, however, that Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) only wants to comment as a member of parliament, but not as a member of the government, on the question of mandatory vaccinations.

Political leadership looks different, the traffic light must stand for a common political idea.

“I share your assessment”, Strack-Zimmermann agrees with the journalist as diplomatically as she can, “that it is a certain irritation when a Federal Chancellor explicitly does not express an opinion”.

"Markus Lanz" - the conclusion of the show

The "Markus Lanz" group will discuss the coronavirus and its political consequences on Wednesday evening.

It takes a while for the discussion to get going, because journalist Diana Zimmermann first reports on the corona situation in Great Britain.

Afterwards, however, talk show host Markus Lanz got more and more active and took North Rhine-Westphalia's health minister Karl-Josef Laumann (CDU) into a verbally argumentative headlock.

He receives support from the journalists Christina Berndt and Robin Alexander.

The FDP politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann copes better with the host and is unimpressed by the assessment that the FDP is currently being torn apart by the compulsory vaccination.