TV Criticism
Concrete planning and comprehensible decisions – even after two years of pandemic unfulfilled wishes. That’s how the talk round at Maybrit Illner sees it. The recovered status in particular raises questions.
By Rebecca Baden
Around two years have passed since the beginning of the corona pandemic, and the guests at Maybrit Illner are still showing: When it comes to uniform control measures and decisions, there is about as little consensus in Germany as in winter 2020. But one thing seems to be clear in the meantime more and more to be seen: For Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach, the air is gradually getting thin.
This can be seen on Thursday evening, above all, from the statements of the other talk show guests. Their positions on the federal government’s testing and vaccination strategy spread:
Karl Lauterbach(SPD, Federal Health Minister)
Linda Teuteberg (FDP Member of Parliament)
Torsten Frei (First Parliamentary Secretary of the CDU parliamentary group)
Carsten Watzl (Immunologe)
Frauke Rostalski (Legal scholar, member of the Ethics Council)
Karl Lauterbach: Don’t downplay antigen tests
First, the moderator puts the health minister to the test. Because the PCR tests lack so much capacity, citizens should increasingly resort to antigen tests again – for example, to get out of isolation earlier. “Six months ago, these quick tests weren’t even good enough to test oneself for going to the pub,” shoots Illner. Lauterbach himself had also stated in the past that the rapid tests would only detect 60 percent of infections.
Apparently he doesn’t want to know anything about that anymore. One shouldn’t downplay the antigen tests, counters the SPD man. The fact that the structure for the PCR tests has not been expanded is also due to the fact that a different test method was prioritized in the past. Alone, in the round with the other guests – and in the face of the omicron wave whipping around – this explanation is of little help to the new Minister of Health.
With recovered status, Lauterbach turns everyone against them
The CDU politician Thorsten Frei, in particular, is harsh with his former GroKo colleague. Omicron had already been declared a worrying mutation by the World Health Organization at the end of November, according to the Union’s first parliamentary manager in the Bundestag. It is shocking that the traffic light government declared on January 10 that it did not want to expand the testing capacities.
In addition, there is the surprising reduction in the convalescent status from six to three months. People were taken by surprise and now have to be tested again for work or cancel planned vacations, says Frei. “That’s also something that destroys a bit of trust,” he says. If different rules suddenly apply in Germany than in all other EU countries, the question of traceability arises.
The three-month rule remains incomprehensible
The other guests don’t seem completely convinced of the new three-month rule either. Lauterbach does not seem impressed by this: when the quarantine period was shortened, nobody expected advance notice, according to the Minister of Health. He does not want to accept the accusation that he surprised the population with the shortened convalescent status.
“I don’t surprise anyone,” he replies almost defiantly. “I don’t even need that.” In the end, however, even moderator Illner notes: At the age of three months, the Minister of Health is now sitting pretty lonely in the group.
Teuteberg: Too many communication errors
It happens as it almost always happens in the Corona talks: The group discusses everything that could have been done better, distributes a few party political tips – and almost forgets to discuss constructive solutions for the further course of the situation.
At least the FDP MP Linda Teuteberg wants to have recognized that errors were made in this pandemic, especially in communication. Teuteberg and other members of her parliamentary group, led by party deputy Wolfgang Kubicki, have submitted an application to the Bundestag against general vaccination requirements. Omicron has shown that vaccination alone does not work to end the pandemic, the FDP politician explains the thinking behind it.
Pragmatic standards and the ability to plan are required
According to Teuteberg, if the government continues to hope for acceptance among the population, it needs pragmatic standards and the ability to plan. She calls for “a clever test strategy” and a better vaccination campaign: “We haven’t exhausted a lot yet.” The only thing that is not clear in its proposal is how the government should implement this given the lack of capacity.
The group also, unsurprisingly, did not agree on the benefits of general vaccination until the end of the show. By the time everyone has presented their position, Illner announces the next program under stress and five minutes late. That’s how it is sometimes when there’s too much discussion: In the end, there’s neither time nor energy for the important topics.
Source From: Stern
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