Corona policy: Spahn defends itself against mask allegations during pandemic

Former Minister of Health and current Union parliamentary group leader Jens Spahn defends himself against allegations to procurement mask in corona pandemic. In the ARD “Report from Berlin” he once again spoke of an emergency situation at the time. When asked about allegations against him, the report by the special investigator Margarethe Sudhof (SPD), which was previously closed, should be raised, said Spahn, he didn’t know the report. He spoke of “subjective evaluations of a single person”.

“Süddeutsche Zeitung”, NDR and WDR quoted from Sudhof’s report so far, which examined the processes in the Ministry during the Corona period. Accordingly, in the end of the mask procurement under Spahn, “missing economic understanding” and “political ambition” led to the fact that not as a “team state”, but as a “team I” had been traded.

According to the report, Spahn had acted in many ways in pandemic in many ways and “demonstrably against the council of its specialist departments”, “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, NDR and WDR. The specialist departments had spoken out in favor of having the mask procurement coordinated by the Ministry of the Interior, as the Corona crisis staff had decided on March 5, 2020.

However, Spahn has decided to “master procurement alone” – and arranged with the Ministry of Health he led into the procurement of mask. Internal criticism was not regarded as a warning signal, it is called in the report.

Spahn said in the ARD that nobody knew exactly what happened in March 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic. Masks and protective equipment were scarce in the hospitals. Nurses and doctors would have said that they hired the service if they didn’t get masks soon. Masks were not to be found worldwide. “In that time we did not procure masks according to procurement law.” This was agreed in the federal government.

The problem at the time was that the federal procurement offices in the Interior and Ministry of Defense simply had not received any masks on the way. Then the cabinet decided that the Ministry of Health would create masks.

The CDU politician spoke out to use a Bundestag’s Enquete Commission very quickly, “ideally” before the summer break. A systematic processing of the pandemic period is necessary.