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Corona pandemic: Friedrich Merz against nationwide mask requirement from autumn

2022-08-15T04:58:06.430Z


Karl Lauterbach's forecast that masks will be compulsory across the board from autumn continues to be criticized. CDU leader Merz warns of an encroachment on fundamental rights “on suspicion”.


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CDU leader Friedrich Merz

Photo: Lennart Preiss/Getty Images

In the dispute over the right corona strategy from autumn, CDU leader Friedrich Merz spoke out against a nationwide mask requirement.

»A general mask requirement in public spaces?

no

On what grounds?” said Merz, who is also chairman of the Union faction in the Bundestag, the dpa news agency.

The 66-year-old also emphasized that he would “definitely not” be vaccinated against Corona every three months from autumn.

Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) made it clear on Friday that he expects masks to be compulsory across the board from October 1st.

Merz emphasized that he was against such an obligation "just because of suspicion, because encroachments on fundamental rights must be carefully justified".

But if there are certain endangered rooms - hospitals, old people's homes, care facilities to protect the residents and the people working there - his answer is yes to a mask requirement.

When asked if he was prepared to be vaccinated against Corona every three months from autumn, Merz replied: "Certainly not." From his family doctor's point of view, he had three vaccinations and a corona disease at the beginning of the pandemic enough protection.

This has also been measured and verified.

"I don't believe in continuing the vaccination debate in this way."

Attack against Lauterbach

Merz violently attacked the Minister of Health: "The way Mr. Lauterbach communicates and acts, he creates chaos everywhere and also unsettles the population." This would possibly mobilize opponents of vaccination even more, he warned.

Lauterbach had explained on Friday that it was not the case that a vaccination would only be valid for three months and that one had to be vaccinated every three months.

This deadline for exceptions to the mask requirement indoors was chosen because, according to the existing view, vaccinations protect against infection during this period.

They provided much longer protection against serious infections.

Getting vaccinated every three months would also be "completely nonsensical from a medical point of view," he said.

Against the background of the dispute over the traffic light plans for a new infection protection law, Merz demanded: “I can only recommend that the federal government not come to parliament with these uncoordinated, immature proposals in the fall.” It was surprising to him that the FDP and SPD Topics that had been decided upon together "which obviously not only met with no approval in part of the coalition, but even met with strong rejection".

Merz for uniform regulation

At the same time, the CDU chairman warned of a confusing patchwork quilt in the corona rules in the coming autumn and winter.

If there are different characteristics of the infection process in individual federal states, this must be taken into account.

"But the legitimate need of the population is that there should be a regulation that is as uniform and understandable as possible in all parts of the Federal Republic of Germany."

For example, an ICE from Hamburg to Munich runs through several federal states, said Merz.

"One can expect that those who get on in Hamburg and get off again in Munich will also find completely uniform regulations on the connecting trains." accepted internally by as large a part of the population as possible and can be implemented«.

The number of corona sick leave continues to rise despite the fall in incidence

According to a report by the editorial network Germany (RND), while government and opposition parties are arguing about corona concepts from autumn, sick leave due to Covid 19 diseases has increased despite officially falling corona incidences.

As the RND writes, citing current figures from the Barmer health insurance company, the proportion of employees on sick leave due to Corona rose by around 77 percent in the 29th calendar week from July 17 to 23 compared to the same period in the previous month to 181 employees per 10,000 insured persons.

According to this, there was a share of around 180 employees due to Corona for every 10,000 insured persons last in the eleventh calendar week from March 12th to 19th.

At that time, however, the seven-day incidence was around 1900 – while it was only around 800 in the 29th calendar week.

According to the RND, this indicates a high number of unreported cases of corona infections.

The reason for this could be that more and more people are refraining from checking a positive rapid corona test using a PCR test.

But only infections confirmed with a PCR test are included in the official corona statistics of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).

col/dpa

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-08-15

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