Sunday, November 28th, 2021
MPK “better yesterday than tomorrow”
Spahn calls for massive contact restrictions
Health Minister Spahn warns in a talk show in view of the worsening Corona situation to hurry. A federal-state summit must be held as soon as possible. He also calls for “measures that massively reduce contacts”. He also admits his own failures.
In view of the worsening infection situation in Germany, the acting Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn has repeated his call for a quick meeting of the heads of the federal and state governments. Consultations between the federal government still in office and the prime ministers of the federal states should be called “better yesterday than tomorrow,” said Spahn on the ARD program “Anne Will”.
There must be immediate contact restrictions, said Spahn. In the current situation, only contact-reducing measures would help, and “appropriate decisions: canceling major events, canceling celebrations, shutting down all public life in certain regions, 2G plus consistently throughout the country,” said Spahn. These are decisions that no Federal Minister of Health could have made in the 18 months of the pandemic. “Because these are decisions made by the federal states and the local authorities.”
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig also spoke out in favor of 2G-plus rules being implemented nationwide. In the coming week, contact restrictions for unvaccinated people would be imposed in the northeastern country, said the SPD politician.
Green co-boss Annalena Baerbock also urged quick action. “We can’t wait until the 9th,” she said with a view to the next date of the Prime Minister’s Conference. After the judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court on the federal emergency brake on Tuesday, an inventory must be made of the extent to which the federal states have implemented the possible measures, she said. If this is not the case, action must be taken at the federal level.
The importance of the crisis team relativized
Spahn emphasized the drama of the Corona situation: “With the Air Force in Germany we are relocating intensive care patients within the country because in certain regions it is simply no longer possible.” Not only Covid-19 patients, but also cases of heart attacks or strokes would not get the care they need. “That means that now, preferably last week or the week before last, we need measures that massively reduce contacts.” This would require a federal-state vote and a conference of prime ministers.
Spahn relativized the importance of the crisis team announced by the traffic light parties for fighting pandemics. The previous crisis team will also be led by a general, the minister said in response to a corresponding announcement by FDP leader Christian Lindner. “Of course, a crisis team cannot replace decisions,” warned the CDU politician.
Spahn was also self-critical. It should have been clearer on two points. “One is 2G – we discussed it as an option back in August.” However, it was not possible to include this in the joint resolutions, “because at least some of the unvaccinated people did not want to send this signal during the election campaign”. In retrospect, that was wrong, said Spahn. As a second omission, Spahn named the booster vaccinations. “At the beginning of September we had a decision between the federal and state governments to offer all over 60s a booster vaccination.” Here, too, he should have said more emphatically that this must also happen now.