Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has shown himself to be open to reviewing the state’s Corona crisis management, but calls for an appropriate approach. “I believe that we as the federal government have to think about it: what is the wisest form of coming to terms with it,” said the SPD politician in Berlin. “And it has to be forward-looking, so: What lessons do we learn from the pandemic?”
Lauterbach once again referred to a “Health and Resilience” expert council recently set up at the Chancellery, which, based on lessons learned from the Corona crisis, should also deal with the preparation for new pandemics. Scientists who played a role at the time, but also many others, are represented there, so that important insights can be gained. In the coalition, after the FDP, Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens) recently spoke out in favor of coming to terms with how the corona pandemic was being dealt with.
Lauterbach emphasized: “I am not standing in the way of a reappraisal.” A lot of things don’t concern his term as minister. He reiterated that the pandemic management had been very successful overall. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has done “fantastic work”. The further handling of the RKI crisis team’s protocols, which were made public by the online magazine “Multipolar”, should be discussed together with the institute. He did not cause any redactions in the minutes.
Habeck reiterates the call for the pandemic to be dealt with
Habeck said in Berlin: “I don’t find it at all dishonorable to say that the Corona period needs to be looked at again and dealt with.” He had made a similar statement in the “Bild” newspaper the day before.
Those in charge at the time could always take credit for having to make decisions even though they sometimes only had incomplete information, emphasized Habeck. He took up a statement by the then Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) that we would still have to forgive each other a lot. “That is a wisely spoken sentence,” said Habeck. At the beginning of the pandemic, Spahn appealed for understanding for difficult political decisions in the Corona crisis. In the Bundestag he said “that we will probably have to forgive a lot in a few months.”
From Habeck’s point of view, many injuries and experiences that single people have had, for example, would have to be dealt with. He spoke of experiences of isolation. The lack of school-based learning steps may also not have been fully addressed. Bad words were also spoken. “For me, coming to terms with it means bringing the country back together again at this point, where there was so much debate.”
Habeck did not decide in what context this should happen. He had been asked for his opinion on a commission of inquiry. It is important that debates from the pandemic that are no longer helpful are repeated again today. “That’s the most important thing.”
