Immune deficiency curable?
Lauterbach rows back again at Corona
01/23/2023 11:26 am
In an interview, Karl Lauterbach warns of an immune deficiency after several infections with the corona virus. With the current study situation, however, the Minister of Health is making a crucial mistake. Again he has to revise a statement.
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has again corrected one of his statements about the risk of corona infections. Lauterbach had warned the “Rheinische Post” of an incurable immune deficiency after several corona infections. Now he received the “incurable” on Twitter: “There is currently no talk of incurable immunodeficiency,” he wrote on the short message service.
Referring to his ministry (BMG), Lauterbach explained: “There was a technical transmission error in the BMG.” His quote should therefore have been: “Studies now show very clearly that those affected are often dealing with an immune deficiency whose duration we do not yet know.” An internal error when authorizing the interview is therefore obvious.
The health minister responded with the tweet to a comment in the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. Science journalist Christina Berndt described Lauterbach’s statement as irresponsible. The fact that Lauterbach is dramatizing again, “and here with preliminary data, is evidence of a communication weakness that is difficult to heal,” wrote the immunologist on Twitter.
Not the first U-turn
Lauterbach had already restricted in the newspaper interview that the risk factor for the development of chronic diseases was “not yet certain” and was being intensively researched. In the conversation, the minister announced a major initiative for people with Long Covid. According to Lauterbach, it is estimated that five to ten percent of people suffer from long-term consequences after contracting Covid 19.
The correction is not Lauterbach’s first about-face. After announcing the end of the obligation to isolate at the beginning of April, he rowed back a few days later. Experts and the media had sharply criticized the decision. In August, the minister then qualified a recommendation for the fourth vaccination. In an interview he had said that if you wanted to enjoy the summer without the risk of illness, then he would “of course recommend vaccination to younger people in consultation with the family doctor”.
Criticism came a few days later from the head of the Standing Vaccination Commission, Thomas Mertens: He does not know of any data that would justify such advice. Lauterbach then explained: “I didn’t say: the fourth vaccination for everyone.”