Corona: Lauterbach warns of easing and reprimands Markus Söder

Corona: Lauterbach warns of easing and reprimands Markus Söder

The dispute with Markus Söder. The attacks on RKI President Lothar Wieler. And when can we finally relax the corona measures? Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach had a clear answer ready for every topic before the federal press conference.

Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) sharply criticized Bavaria’s decision to suspend compulsory vaccination for the nursing industry – and at the same time expressed a lack of understanding for unvaccinated nursing staff. Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) sent a “dangerous signal” by suspending the facility-related vaccination requirement, Lauterbach said on Tuesday in Berlin before the federal press conference. Söder gives the impression that he is bowing to the corona protests on the street. Lauterbach criticized the fact that medical staff were refusing a corona vaccination as unacceptable.

With his decision, Söder is sending out the signal that “the protest against the facility-related compulsory vaccination on the street is more important than protecting people who are waiting helplessly for good care,” said Lauterbach. In addition, it is “difficult to convey” when a prime minister simply says that the laws in force in his country are not being implemented. He hopes that the federal government will find a solution with the states for the implementation of the vaccination requirement.

Lauterbach criticizes nursing staff: it cannot be that knowledge standard is rejected

Lauterbach made it clear that employees in the care facilities can be expected to make a rational and well-informed decision about a corona vaccination. “It’s unacceptable for the employees in these facilities to say: We don’t accept Western knowledge, I don’t believe in vaccination.” This is “not really a justifiable position for medical staff,” Lauterbach criticized.

The minister stressed that the facility-related vaccination requirement was “not a form of harassment against staff” working in nursing or medical facilities. “We are concerned with protecting the people entrusted to the employees there,” he said. “Each of us remembers how dramatic the problems were when, unfortunately, a good year ago, many people died in these facilities.”

Lauterbach: “No hasty easing”

Lauterbach also warned against hasty relaxation of the current corona measures. “The situation is not really under control yet,” said Lauterbach. The peak of the omicron infection wave will probably be reached in mid-February – but it could also be delayed a little because of the particularly contagious BA.2 variant of the virus. “We currently have a functioning, successful strategy,” said Lauterbach. “It cannot be our goal to endanger them now if we don’t have to.”

Germany is “still at risk, and we cannot advocate broad easing at the moment, as is currently being discussed,” the minister said. “I’m amazed at the discussion, some of which can be observed in politics. We’re still before the peak of the wave,” says the police, who say there are between 100 and 150 deaths every day.

If it were to be relaxed too quickly, “then we would lengthen the wave significantly,” said Lauterbach. “We would then probably not only risk a relapse, but we would then not be able to achieve a rapid flattening of the wave, as we are now striving for in principle.”

Source: Stern

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest Posts