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RKI boss Lothar Wieler
Photo: IMAGO/Political Moments
Deputy FDP chairman Wolfgang Kubicki has asked Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) to dismiss the President of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Lothar Wieler.
The "data chaos" that the FDP had denounced in connection with the corona pandemic was "officially clearly named" by the report of the Council of Experts for the Evaluation of the Corona Measures, Kubicki told the "Welt am Sonntag".
At the RKI, a “new start in terms of personnel” is necessary, and the institute must become more independent of the Ministry of Health, said the Bundestag Vice President.
Lauterbach defends Wieler
Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, on the other hand, defended Wieler.
"The RKI has always provided good data on the incidence," said the SPD politician at a press conference by the Federal Ministry of Health.
The criticism of the RKI boss is not justified.
"He has my full trust," said Lauterbach.
Nevertheless, one is on the way to improving the data situation when determining the incidences, among other things by monitoring wastewater, said Lauterbach.
The expert commission of the Bundestag and the federal government had previously submitted an evaluation report on the corona protection measures.
Many measures were justified at the beginning, but lost their effectiveness over time.
The effects and side effects of individual previous measures can hardly be assessed on their own.
The experts of the expert committee on corona policy appointed by the federal government had previously issued a mixed report to the federal and state governments.
The committee criticized, for example, that risk communication was poorly used in Germany and that the information campaign could have been designed better.
In the opinion of the committee, the lockdown at the beginning of the pandemic was effective, but the effect of the measure was no longer given in a later phase of the pandemic.
The experts also emphasize in the 165-page report that masks are only effective in protecting against transmission if people put them on correctly (read more about the report here).
fek/svs/dpa