A.In the end, the two did not shake hands, which is not wanted in times of pandemic, but they pressed their fists together. After a joint press conference in Berlin, Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) and the President of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Lothar Wieler, were still quite amicable leaving the event. Before that, however, Wieler had stood a little lost on the far left on the podium of the federal press conference, while Lauterbach was talking to the third media guest, the chairman of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, Andreas Gassen. The minister had turned his back on Wieler, and he was waiting politely to be noticed again.
Otherwise, Wieler could not complain about a lack of attention in the past few days, on the contrary, he received more from it than he should have liked – and above all his employer Karl Lauterbach. Shortly before the Prime Minister’s Conference on Tuesday, Wieler’s Institute made recommendations to the public that went far beyond the policy proposals for containing corona. The RKI pleaded for immediate “maximum contact restrictions” and for the closure of restaurants, while the federal and state governments only provide this for discos and clubs and only from next Tuesday onwards. The impression was clear: Wieler wants a real lockdown, while Lauterbach can only enforce milder forms of contact restrictions in the government district.
Lauterbach shouldn’t like that
The fact that the new government’s new expert council met at the weekend and made recommendations to curb the “explosive” spread of the Omikron variant, on which the Prime Minister’s Conference largely oriented itself, also contributed to the irritation. The vote in the council was unanimous, with one of the votes coming from Wieler. Lauterbach sat there as a listener and was later surprised that Wieler and his RKI were apparently striving for a sharper pace than previously agreed in the council.
Outwardly, the procedure seemed disagreed and confused – which should not please the new minister, who likes to be hands-on. This is especially true against the background that parts of the population exploit every contradiction among experts and decision-makers. For Lauterbach, the impression that he no longer took on the role of the Corona hardliner, but that he had lost it to Wieler, was also unfavorable. Then it is quickly said in public that it was previously easy for the medical professor to call for stricter procedures on talk shows. Hardly any responsibility, but he becomes tame because so many other interests have to be taken into account.
This was already indicated when Lauterbach recently categorically ruled out a Christmas lockdown. The restrictions on Tuesday were also rather lax, and they will not apply until December 28th to prevent excesses on New Year’s Eve. In order to regain the sovereignty of interpretation and the impression of having a strong hand, Lauterbach said in the meantime that sharper cuts could be necessary again in the coming year. There are “no red lines” in terms of the declaration of an epidemic emergency and a lockdown. “In principle, you don’t want to rule anything out here, we will consider everything if it were necessary,” he said on Wednesday. At the moment, however, this is not necessary: ”With the measures that we have now decided, we can control the pandemic events in the next few weeks.”
Beyond body language, which was much more tense at Wieler than at Lauterbach, the two tried to signal unity at their routine corona press conference. Apparently it was agreed to draw a line under the discrepancies and, as Lauterbach said, to think “ahead” now, that is, to direct all efforts towards the containment of Omikron. Wieler also made it clear that everything is about the same thing, namely to get through the winter as lightly as possible without overloading the health system and with as few corona victims as possible.
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