“I never said all younger people should get vaccinated now”
“Lauterbach’s recommendation is political, but not based on science”
“Anyone who has the basic immunization need not worry,” says virologist Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit about the new Infection Protection Act. Stiko’s recommendation was correct. He criticizes Health Minister Lauterbach.
“That’s just wrong”: Karl Lauterbach objects to having recommended a fourth corona vaccination to young people. However, statements by the health minister in July sound a little different.
BHealth Minister Karl Lauterbach does not want earlier statements on the fourth corona vaccination to be understood as a recommendation for all younger people. “I didn’t say: The fourth vaccination for everyone,” said the SPD politician on Tuesday evening on ZDF’s “heute journal”. “I never said that all younger people should get vaccinated now. That’s just wrong.”
The minister had met in mid-July “Mirror”-Interview on the fourth corona vaccination and said that if you wanted to enjoy the summer without the risk of illness, then he would “of course recommend the vaccination to younger people in consultation with the family doctor”.
He only pointed out that a clear message was needed for the different age groups, such as those under 60, Lauterbach said. In his opinion, risk patients should not wait for the adapted vaccines: Waiting is “simply wrong for those who are now at risk,” he said on ZDF. With younger people, however, it could make sense “to wait a little longer” and be treated with the new vaccines, Lauterbach said in the ARD “Tagesthemen”.
The Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) currently only recommends a fourth corona vaccination for people over the age of 70 and some risk groups. Leading EU authorities have called for a second booster shot for everyone over 60.
Masks should become mandatory inside when the corona situation is tense
In the meantime, citizens have to prepare for the return to the obligation to wear masks indoors if the corona situation deteriorates significantly in autumn and winter. At a conference of health ministers (GMK) of the federal and state governments on Tuesday, however, violent differences became clear about exceptions provided by the federal government for newly vaccinated people.
Lauterbach said after the consultation: “It has been made clear that wearing masks indoors should be the rule in a tense pandemic situation.” Several countries had previously criticized planned exceptions. This is about the plan to exempt people from wearing masks in restaurants or at cultural and sporting events if their vaccination is not older than three months.
Lauterbach said: “It should only be possible to deviate from this in exceptional cases.” This makes the emergency rule even safer. “A freshly vaccinated person has a relatively low risk of infection even if they don’t wear a mask.”
Bavaria’s Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU), on the other hand, called on Lauterbach to remove the “questionable exceptions” to the mask requirement for newly vaccinated and recovered people from the law. A three-month vaccination interval contradicts the current recommendations of the Standing Vaccination Commission.