Lanz: Minister and doctor shock schoolgirl with clear corona announcement – ​​“More children die from it”

Created: 02/11/2022, 20:21

Doctor Eva Hummers and student representative Johanna Börgermann in conversation at "Markus Lanz".

© Cornelia Lehmann/ZDF

Coronavirus debate at Markus Lanz: STIKO member Eva Hummers questions mass tests in schools.

Meanwhile, Markus Lanz can hardly believe statements made by CDU politician Karin Prien.

Hamburg – Markus Lanz tries to find out on Thursday evening whether resistance to facility-related compulsory vaccination is purely a Union issue.

CDU * Vice Karin Prien rejects this.

In Berlin, the starting requirements for the rule are just as lacking as in Bavaria or Saarland.

The presenter shook his head in disbelief.

He cannot understand that a "top lawyer" like Prien is co-passing a law in the Bundesrat that was clear beforehand that it could not be implemented.

"We've talked so often about communication and the resulting loss of credibility," the host says angrily and clasps his hands.

Prien agrees with Lanz without hesitation, she is also bothered by this fact.

The doctor Eva Hummers, since 2011 a member of the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko)*, which she has sometimes harshly criticized, also struggles with politics: “It always feels a bit like working for the fire brigade and then saying when there is a fire: But I'm not going in there now."

Subject of compulsory vaccination – moderator Lanz considers: "Can you just say: 'The Alpine countries are just a bit different'?"

When Markus Lanz talks to Prien about the high vaccination rates in her home country of Schleswig-Holstein, the conversation turns into a cultural debate.

In Schleswig-Holstein, people are "rather Danish," says Prien, while Hummers from Lower Saxony says: "We're not Schleswig-Holstein in that sense, but it's definitely not Bavaria."

Karin Prien (CDU) as a guest on "Markus Lanz" (ZDF).

© Cornelia Lehmann/ZDF

"In any case, you can already see a north-south divide that has grown historically.

Enough medical historians have already commented on this,” confirms the sociologist Aladin El-Mafaalani.

The nationwide introduction of facility-related compulsory vaccination is also encountering a “rocked-down system” in schools, old people’s and nursing homes, which proved to be inflexible during the corona pandemic.

"Markus Lanz" - these were his guests on February 10th:

• Karin Prien (CDU)

  – Minister of Education of Schleswig-Holstein and CDU Vice

• Johanna Börgermann

  – state student spokeswoman for North Rhine-Westphalia

• Eva Hummers

  – Doctor

• Aladin El-Mafaalani

  - Sociologist

When asked by Lanz for an assessment of the general obligation to vaccinate, Hummers admits that she has changed her mind in recent weeks.

Six weeks ago she still thought it made sense "if it was limited in time".

In the meantime, however, she believes that “the issue will have been resolved by the time we get there*.

Maybe it will boil up again next fall.

I hope that won't be the case."

"That's the argument you just didn't want to accept," Prien accuses the moderator.

When the facility-related vaccination requirement was launched, it was intended to be part of a package with the general vaccination requirement.

Like Hummers, Prien considered this plan to be "absolutely legitimate and correct," but because she was too late for the omicron wave anyway, it was now a precautionary measure in the event of a new mutant.

Video: What to do if my child tests positive for the corona virus?

CDU woman Karin Prien on "Markus Lanz": "It is not a dangerous disease for five to eleven year olds"

The student Johanna Börgermann, student representative in North Rhine-Westphalia and representative of the #WirWerdenLaut campaign, is of the opinion that children and young people between the ages of five and eleven are also a “vulnerable group” because there is no vaccination recommendation from the STIKO for them.

Hummers disagrees and points out that for this age group there is both a vaccination recommendation under certain circumstances and an opening clause to enable vaccination of five to eleven year olds.

"It's not a dangerous disease for five to eleven year olds," Prien says a little later - Börgermann can already see the inner seething.

She is not alone in her assessment, says the minister, and refers to voices from experts, such as the German Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases (GDPI).

#WirWerdenLauter representative Börgermann at “Markus Lanz”: “Young people are suffering”

Börgermann, on the other hand, believes that a lower risk does not mean no risk and claims that one percent of all children show long-Covid symptoms.

Hummers thinks that number is a bit overestimated.

Apart from that, it has not been proven whether Long-Covid even exists in children: “There are clearly Long-Covid symptoms.

It's just that they're just as common in children who didn't have Covid at all.

So they are pandemic-associated and not virus-associated.”

Whether virus-induced or psychosomatic, Börgermann states: “We are suffering.

The youth are suffering from the pandemic.

Not just under distance learning, but under the entire pandemic.” Hummers agrees when it comes to the consequences of the pandemic, but questions in relation to the long history “whether vaccination is an appropriate measure.

Whether vaccination really protects against long-Covid courses and to what extent: we don't know that yet."

“What does that do to this generation?” Talkmaster Lanz now asks El-Mafaalani.

He finds it “maximum tragic” that those who are least at risk from the virus would suffer the most from the measures*.

Another problem is that school is often the only place for children of immigrant families to learn the German language.

#WirWerdenLaut - at "Markus Lanz" Johanna Börgermann explains the purpose of the initiative

“We have demanded that we suspend compulsory attendance.

But no distance learning for everyone, I would like to emphasize that very strongly, ”Börgermann now formulates one of the core demands of #WirWerdenLaut.

Classroom attendance is “the best thing for the students”.

However, the psychological stress caused by corona tests at school is so great that particularly suffering children and young people should be able to take part in lessons remotely.

Prien, chairwoman of the Conference of Ministers of Education, considers this idea to be conceivable at best “for the larger ones”.

However, the politician agrees with the student representative that vulnerable children and children from vulnerable families need “a new kind of education”.

STIKO member Hummels, on the other hand, looks to the Netherlands, where an epidemic was accepted with approval.

Despite many infections, very few children are seriously ill, which leads them to ask: "Who is ultimately going to benefit from all this testing?"

STIKO member Eva Hummers doubts unprovoked mass testing at "Markus Lanz".

"You question that?", Talkmaster Lanz wonders, Hummers replies frankly: "I'm questioning that at the moment." Asymptomatic testing is primarily useful for the health authorities and statistics, says the STIKO member and finds: " I would like to doubt that this is of any use to the children themselves.”

According to Hummers, Börgermann cannot hide her indignation: “I find the idea very, very dangerous.

So to say we keep students who test positive in school.

Do you know what that does to the students?!" You can at least protect students by sending home children and young people who have tested positive.

But Hummers serves the student an uncomfortable fact, which Prien also agrees with: "We do it the same way with the flu.

And more children die from it than from Covid.”

"Markus Lanz" - The conclusion of the show

On Thursday evening, the "Markus Lanz" group discussed how Germany's children and young people are suffering from the corona pandemic.

Opposites collide between Schleswig-Holstein's Education Minister Karin Prien (CDU), the doctor Eva Hummers and the #WirWerdenLaut representative Johanna Börgermann.

Prien and Hummers advocate a relaxed corona policy for healthy small children and young people without previous illnesses.

Börgermann argued doggedly against the two, even the mediation attempts by talk show host Markus Lanz and sociologist Aladin El-Mafaalani did not convince the student: "There are also students my age who are afraid of an infection.

Let that be irrational, but you are so afraid.”