Mask duty forever? Journalists as agents of politics

Other countries have long been living as before the pandemic, only Germany does not want to leave the special path with measures and regulations. This is not only due to politicians, but also to journalists who give them a helping hand.

Wearing a mask has been mandatory in Germany since April 2020, and it still applies in long-distance transport.

Andreas Gebert / Bloomberg

A few months ago, this forecast would have been called a conspiracy theorist: the mask will remain forever, even after Corona has become an everyday virus. Now journalists of all people are doing their best to make their worst fears come true. The reason for this is the statement by Germany’s best-known virologist Christian Drosten that the pandemic is now over. The FDP used the springboard to eliminate the very corona measures that it had largely supported in the traffic light coalition.

Politicians and parties who have benefited from the ongoing panic were quick to put Drosten’s statement into perspective. Health Minister Lauterbach does not want to let the fantasies of the permanently dangerous “killer virus” be taken away: “An immediate end to all measures would be reckless.” Green and Red party officials also saw little reason to abolish rules restricting fundamental rights.

So far, so to be expected. What is irritating, however, is that some journalists do not want to say goodbye to state-imposed coercion. “Just because the virologist Christian Drosten is proclaiming the end of the pandemic, the federal government shouldn’t rush anything now,” writes a political editor in the «Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung» and even judges: “Advocating for a quick end to the few remaining measures shows a remarkably poor sense of what is going on in the country.”

Wearing a mask is unconstitutional

Involuntarily, one wonders whether the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung still has a sense of what constitutes independent journalism: for example, pointing out to the powerful that they are overexerting their power. The continuation of the mask requirement when the “epidemic situation” expires is not covered by the German Infection Protection Act. It is therefore against the law in force to ignore the fact that the pandemic has subsided to become an endemic.

A journalist goes even further in a comment in the «Süddeutsche Zeitung» from: “It would be disastrous, in the middle of this winter, which is producing a record number of respiratory infections, to call for an end to all protective measures that were put in place against Corona, but also protect against other pathogens.” The “Süddeutsche” editor concludes with the conclusion that the end of the measures is a mistake, “one that costs human lives”. That may be factually correct, but the sharp increase in mental illnesses among children and young people, for example, shows that the measures can also be dangerous.

“New names for the measures”

The “Süddeutsche Zeitung” ignores the fact that there has been no mask and isolation requirement in surrounding countries for months and that these countries have not had more corona deaths than Germany. Even the fact that the incidences fell in Bavaria after the end of the mask requirement does not lead to any rethinking. The face covering should remain, now against flu and influenza.

It becomes abstruse when the journalist suggests simply considering “new names for the measures”. As if new names would make restrictions on fundamental rights less bad. This suggestion could also come from the PR agencies that the federal government regularly hires to sell undesirable political measures as an absolute necessity.

Not only at the beginning of the epidemic did some journalists act almost like government spokesmen. Accepting political narratives uncritically is always a mistake. Now it would be time to name the injustices of the past few years instead of imagining new ones.

source site-111