Corona measures are expiring: This is how the pandemic ends

The last measures in the fight against Corona are expiring, for Health Minister Lauterbach the pandemic is over. What lessons still need to be learned and what is now on Lauterbach’s to-do list.

“It’s serious, take it seriously!” It is a Wednesday in March 2020 when the then Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke these words in an extraordinary televised address. And it’s one of those moments when it feels like the whole nation is looking at the screen.

Merkel is wearing a blue jacket, the Bundestag can be seen behind her on the television picture. The setting is more reminiscent of the annual New Year’s speech, but the occasion is a serious one: the corona pandemic has reached Germany. Merkel calls on the citizens to “act together in solidarity” in the corona crisis.

And then it goes very quickly. A few days later, the federal government imposed the first lockdown. First for two weeks. But then there is a long period of contact restrictions: culture, sports, travel, meeting friends and relatives – many things are restricted. Schools and daycare centers remain closed. If you can, stay in the home office.

Politicians are acting, but they are facing unprecedented challenges. In seemingly endless meetings with the prime ministers, the chancellor struggled to find the right path. Mistakes are inevitable. In a government survey in the Bundestag in April 2020, then Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn asked for understanding for difficult political decisions. You will probably have to forgive each other a lot in a few months, says the CDU politician.

Other issues come to the fore

It will be a full three years before Spahn’s successor, Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, officially declares the corona pandemic over at the beginning of April 2023. Almost silently on the sidelines of a press conference. The SPD politician has long had his hands full with other issues, including bottlenecks in the supply of medicines, hospital and care reforms. Most of the corona measures have long been in place.

Now the mask requirement in doctor’s offices and for visitors in nursing homes follows. As always with important concerns, Lauterbach also tweeted to his more than one million followers: In view of the latest findings in the Corona Expert Council and the evaluation of the development of the burden of disease, one can say that the pandemic is also over for Germany.

“Overall coping strategy worked”

From Lauterbach’s point of view, the “overall strategy for coping has worked”. In view of the considerable threat that there was, the minister speaks of a success. The vaccinations worked, most of the scientific assumptions that the government referred to were correct – for example that children are also contagious.

But some things could have gone better, as Lauterbach has long since admitted. In particular, many now see the long school closures as a mistake. Teachers, psychologists, paediatricians and adolescent doctors are now reporting on the consequences that would continue: depression, eating disorders, mental stress and backlogs in school material. The long school closures were not necessary, says Lauterbach.

Commission of Inquiry required

But the list of criticism is longer. The far-reaching bans on contacts, travel and visiting the sick are also controversial. Courts have long since dealt with measures such as the exit restrictions and have sometimes declared them disproportionate. For example, the extensive exit restrictions in Bavaria during the first Corona wave, when citizens were only allowed to leave the house for a good reason, such as to go to work or to do sports.

Politicians are now demanding the establishment of a commission of inquiry. Now it is the task of politics, together with science, to evaluate the measures taken in the past and to check their proportionality, says the parliamentary director of the FDP parliamentary group, Christine Aschenberg-Dugnus. The hurdles for encroaching on fundamental rights should be set higher in the future and be subject to parliamentary control, says Aschenberg-Dugnus.

Lessons have yet to be learned

Three years after it all started, the pandemic has now lost its horror: harmless virus variants and the protection provided by vaccination usually lead to less severe infections, medication makes it easier to deal with. But politicians still have to learn the lessons from dealing with the pandemic, people with long Covid or vaccination damage must be better supported.

Lauterbach recently promised that he would set up a program with the Federal Ministry of Health to investigate the consequences of long Covid and also the post-vac syndrome, i.e. health impairments after vaccinations, and to improve care. He is already in negotiations with the budget committee. Members of the committee did not want to confirm that. So the topic remains an open flank that Minister Lauterbach still has to close.

In conversation with the ARD Capital Studio The minister said that the Federal Joint Committee, i.e. representatives of the medical profession and health insurance companies, would work on an evidence-based, i.e. scientifically proven, guideline on how treatment should be carried out. Lauterbach himself is also working on setting up a program in the area of ​​health services research.

In addition, an information portal is to be created: web-based, but also with a hotline from the Federal Ministry of Health that those affected can contact. They should get information there about their illness, but also tips on where to get treatment. “We really owe it to these people,” says Lauterbach. Because for these people, the pandemic is far from over.

Prepared for possible new pandemics?

The preparation for possible new pandemics and health crises also remains a construction site. Headlines like “National Pandemic Reserve is not making progress” are currently making the rounds. A topic that also concerns Professor Christian Karagiannidis. He is a member of the Corona Expert Council, which ended its work after a last meeting in the Chancellery this week. The committee advised the political decision-makers for almost 16 months. Overall, the group is happy that the pandemic has now come to an end, says Karagiannidis.

From the perspective of the intensive care physician, Germany has come through the pandemic quite well compared to other countries in terms of mortality and disease burden. But the concern remains that we are not sufficiently prepared for possible future crises. Above all, science needs anonymized patient data in an electronic patient file in order to be able to carry out precise analyses.

For masks and protective equipment, Karagiannidis recommends sufficient decentralized storage, for example in clinics and at the fire brigade, and for medicines in all hospital pharmacies. However, the decisive factor is production sites in Europe in order to become independent of China and India.

With regard to preparing for possible future pandemics, Lauterbach concedes in conversation with the ARD Capital Studio Delays in establishing a National Pandemic Reserve. The budget committee stopped this plan and asked for more information about what the federal government and what the states should do. “We’re working on a concept,” says Lauterbach. One of the many tasks on his long to-do list, which is still well filled despite the end of the pandemic.