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Covid intensive care unit
Photo: Florian Bachmeier / imagebroker / IMAGO
In the third year of the pandemic, repetition is inevitable.
There is hardly a debate about the corona rules that has not been held at some point in time.
When the head of panel doctors Andreas Gassen demanded in the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” that isolation and quarantine obligations because of Covid-19 be lifted in order to defuse staff shortages, Lower Saxony’s Health Minister Daniela Behrens (SPD) felt reminded of autumn 2021.
Gassen then saw the end of all corona measures.
"A short time later," Behrens tweeted, "by the way, the intensive care beds were full."
In Lower Saxony you will not listen to the doctors' representatives.
Many of her country counterparts see things the same way.
Party member and Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach wasted no time emphasizing on Twitter: “Infected people must stay at home.
Otherwise, not only will the number of cases increase even more, but the workplace itself will become a security risk.« Alone: He has to deal with the coalition partner FDP in the federal government.
He is currently in negotiations about a new infection protection law with FDP Justice Minister Marco Buschmann.
And there it is repeatedly emphasized that the citizens should be given more personal responsibility.
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Covid-19: Head of the panel doctor insists on the end of quarantine and isolation requirements
In fact, the pandemic is putting a heavy strain on clinics this summer.
There are about twice as many corona patients in the hospital as in the previous year.
At the same time, more and more staff are absent due to infections and the resulting isolation and quarantine requirements.
The FDP therefore considers Gassen's proposal to be a good thing.
The health policy spokesman for the parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Andrew Ullmann, thinks that the length of isolation should no longer be prescribed by the state, but should be determined solely by the doctor’s sick leave.
»Anyone who has Corona must stay at home«
The FDP is pretty much alone with its position.
The health politician Saskia Weishaupt from the Greens made it clear for her group: "Anyone who has Corona must stay at home." People should not be exposed to the risk of infection at their workplace.
»We are slipping into an autumn when the quarantine and isolation rules will become particularly important and will ultimately save lives.«
"Overall, it gives nurses the impression, even more than before, that their own health means nothing."
Kathrin Vogler, health policy spokeswoman for the left-wing parliamentary group in the Bundestag
The health policy spokeswoman for the left-wing parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Kathrin Vogler, also considers Gassen's proposal to be "nonsense".
"In the short term, it would result in even more employees being absent from the wards because of symptomatic infections," says Vogler.
Not to mention the danger that infected nurses pose to their patients.
In addition, a higher infection rate among employees will also produce a higher number of long-term consequences (Long Covid) and long-term absences.
"All in all, it gives the nursing staff the impression even more than before that their own health means nothing." Before the fall, "we don't need any excessive profiling by the individual coalition partners".
She hopes "that no one in the traffic light coalition is crazy enough to take up this idea."
»Gassen asks the right questions«
The health policy spokesman for the Union faction in the Bundestag, Tino Sorge, told SPIEGEL: "Gassen understandably asks the right questions about how we can avoid overload situations as a result of rigid quarantine and isolation regulations, taking into account the respective variant." In clinics and nursing homes, however, "particular caution should continue to apply «.
Insulation makes sense there.
"But it should be checked in which areas the duration could be made more flexible," he said.
These regulations should be discussed in the context of all protective measures, explained Sorge.
Gassen's initiative was also followed by professional criticism: The chairman of the World Medical Association, Frank Ulrich Montgomery, warned urgently against an end to the isolation requirements for corona sufferers.
He told the Rheinische Post: “From a medical point of view, the lifting of quarantine rules for labor market reasons is not justifiable.
Our task is to protect people from illness, suffering and death and not to force sick people to work.«