Because of corona masks: Lauterbach exchanged blows with FDP man on Twitter

Created: 2022-08-02 05:33

By: Patrick Mayer

Federal Minister of Health: Karl Lauterbach from the SPD.

© IMAGO / Political Moments

Karl Lauterbach reiterates the importance of face masks in the fight against Corona.

An FDP man still has something to complain about with regard to a study.

The health minister's counterattack followed promptly.

Munich/Berlin - Germany is experiencing a hot summer due to partly tropical heat.

And yet in some places the view is worrying towards autumn and the cold season.

The unanimous question is: What's next for Corona?

On July 30, 66,003 infections were reported within one day on the official website of the federal government for the corona virus.

Do face masks protect against corona infection?

Karl Lauterbach refers to the study

At the same time, the picture is the same in many places: on buses and trains, S-Bahn or U-Bahn - some people apparently no longer want to wear face masks, despite the current corona rules.

Even if the risk of infection remains high.

In Bavaria, for example, face masks are still compulsory in local public transport, in medical practices, care facilities and hospitals.

Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD), on the other hand, has expressly warned.

On Twitter, the Rhinelander now referred to an "American mega study", as he called it.

"For everyone who is still unsure whether masks protect against COVID: Here is a new American mega study that evaluates over 1,700 studies," Lauterbach explained in a tweet and said vehemently: "The benefits of the masks are very great, undisputed and applies to many areas.”

In the video: This is Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD)

The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory from New York, the medical journal BMJ and Yale University (Connecticut) collaborated on the overarching study.

According to the summary of the study, a total of 243 subjects were infected with COVID-19, of whom 97 wore masks and 146 did not.

The scientists write in this about the effect of the face masks: “The probability of contracting COVID-19 was 7% for mask wearers (97/1463, p=0.002), for non-mask wearers 52% (158/303, p =0.94).

The relative risk of contracting COVID-19 for mask wearers was 0.13 (95% CI: 0.10-0.16).

Based on these results, we found that across the health and community setting, those who wore masks were less likely to be exposed to COVID-19.”

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Corona masks: do they protect against infection?

FDP politician criticizes Karl Lauterbach

Sounds clear.

And yet there was a lot of criticism of Lauterbach's tweet from the German Bundestag - and of all things from the coalition partner FDP.

“Dear Karl Lauterbach, perhaps an interesting study.

But praising a study that has not yet been peer-reviewed does not correspond to the usual scientific approach.

Scientific work looks different,” health politician Andrew Ullmann wrote on Twitter: “Your approach could backfire.” The doctor’s tweet was addressed directly to the Minister of Health.

For better classification: The German-American Ullmann is a specialist in internal medicine, hematology, internal oncology and infectiology as well as health policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group in Parliament.

Karl Lauterbach: Federal Minister of Health bickers with FDP man on Twitter

And for understanding for non-physicians: A peer review is a procedure for quality assurance of a scientific work by independent experts from the same field.

According to Ullmann, this quality assurance of the study is apparently (still) missing.

At least the head of department from Berlin did not deny that and instead replied to the FDP politician on social media: “Thank you.

This helps.

You can always rely on the FDP,” wrote the 59-year-old Lauterbach in a reply comment.

Most recently, Lauterbach had already messed with CSU politician Alexander Dobrindt on Twitter because of an energy policy issue.

He remains in focus - not only because of Corona.