Andreas Gassen, head of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, has spoken out in favor of an end to the corona measures based on the British model. Numerous politicians and experts vehemently contradict the demand.
The chairman of the board of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, Andreas Gassen, has called for all corona restrictions to be lifted on October 30th. “After the experiences from Great Britain we should also have the courage to do what worked on the island. So we now need a clear statement from politicians: In six weeks, it will be Freedom Day for us too!”said the chief medical officer of the Saturday edition of the “New Osnabrück Newspaper”. A heated discussion has broken out about this requirement.
SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach thinks this is the case “not ethically justifiable”. The wave of the pandemic that would come would then be too big, warned the SPD politician, an opening would be better if 85 percent were vaccinated. Until then, the 2G rule should apply.
The Green health expert Janosch Dahmen also contradicted Gassen. Among other things, the demand contradicts the attitude of the majority of general practitioners. For a relaxation of the measures, a vaccination quota of over 60-year-olds of well over 90 percent would be required, in the general population of those who are capable of vaccinating it would be over 80 percent. He mentioned Gassen’s suggestion “cynical”. Currently about 62.8 percent of the total population is fully vaccinated.
Criticism from patient advocates and doctors
The board of directors of the German Foundation for Patient Protection, Eugen Brysch, also rejected Gassen’s request. “Freedom Day to lift all corona restrictions is a great thing. But when you look at the doctor’s offices, hospitals and nursing homes, such brisk sayings don’t seem to get across”he told the German Press Agency. Here, the restrictions for patients, those in need of care and relatives are omnipresent.
Many doctors also spoke out against Gassen’s proposal on social media. Gassen’s statements are “technically incomprehensible”wrote about Michael Hallek, internist and professor at Cologne University Hospital “He is welcome to come to our intensive care unit.” This is again full of Covid patients. “It’s not over yet.”
There is also criticism of Gassen’s request from the federal states. Bremen’s Senator for Health Claudia Bernhard (left) said the “NUT: “We have to further increase the willingness to vaccinate. We have to work on that, not on a Freedom Day”. Lower Saxony’s Minister of Health Daniela Behrens (SPD) said Gassen’s idea was with a view to the upcoming autumn and winter “still too reckless”.
Premature discussion?
The FDP health expert Andrew Ullmann considers a discussion about lifting the corona rules to be right. But it was too early to give a specific date, said Ullmann on NDR Info. In the coming weeks, the corona developments have to be monitored closely.
Meanwhile, Gassen received encouragement from the AfD. Top candidate Alice Weidel shared: “The statutory health insurance physicians know better than any self-appointed health expert about the corona situation and the state of our health system. (…) The emergency must not become the new normal. Instead of the 2G regime and lockdown for unvaccinated people, Germany needs Freedom Day as soon as possible.”
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