"In hindsight" Karl Lauterbach recognizes wrong decisions in the corona pandemic - with children suffering.
The minister is currently criticizing Bavaria.
Berlin – Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) has criticized political mistakes in the coronavirus pandemic.
For example, “in retrospect”, school closures were exaggerated and children and young people were unjustly the main victims of the reduction in contact, he admitted on Wednesday evening in the ZDF “heute journal”.
Other countries would have greatly reduced the contacts in the companies.
“We have greatly reduced the contacts with the children, especially with the daycare children and school children.” That should not be repeated, but at the time it was not so clear due to the study situation how contagious children were.
Lauterbach admits that politicians have made mistakes in the Corona crisis: "Draconic measures" are no longer popular
"We did things better afterwards," said Lauterbach.
Children were regularly tested and schools remained open.
It was a "mistake" that it didn't happen earlier.
Lauterbach has been Minister of Health since December 2021, and predecessor Jens Spahn (CDU) led the department for the first two years of the Corona crisis.
Other rules were also exaggerated, said Lauterbach.
"These draconian measures - bans on going out, wearing masks in the open air, closing off children's playgrounds outside - these were things that would no longer be done today." Even then, they were not well covered by studies.
Corona virus: Lauterbach reprimands Bavaria's actions - and admits "luck" in the outcome of the pandemic
"Especially in Bavaria, a lot was done that was not scientifically proven," said the SPD minister on ZDF.
As an example, he cited a ban on walks in the park.
In fact, a limit to the radius of movement of people had even been discussed in the Free State in the meantime.
A few days ago, the Green health politician Paula Piechotta also admitted political mistakes in the fight against the pandemic.
Compared to other countries with a similarly old population, however, Germany came through the pandemic “on the whole” well, Lauterbach said.
"We haven't had that many deaths.
We haven't had that many infections either."
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He “doesn’t hope” that health authorities will have to send faxes in the future, said Lauterbach at the same time.
Among other things, a "Health Data Utilization Act" should remedy this, he announced.
"Our health system was very fragile, much more vulnerable than we thought, and we were lucky that the pandemic ultimately limited itself through the omicron variants," he admitted at the same time.
Lauterbach is currently planning a major hospital reform.
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dpa/fn
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