Minister of Justice: Buschmann skeptical about mask requirement – incidences are increasing

Minister of Justice
Bushman skeptical about mask requirement – incidences are increasing

Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann has expressed skepticism about the reintroduction of a mask requirement if the corona infections continue to rise sharply.

Apparently he doesn’t think their benefit has been scientifically proven yet. “If the state wants to prescribe masks, for example indoors, it has to be evidence-based and proportionate. We will discuss whether this is the case when all the reports are available,” said the FDP politician to the “Rheinische Post” (Saturday).

“Evidence-based”, as Buschmann put it, means based on collated and evaluated scientific knowledge. Buschmann said he wears a mask himself in the supermarket, but voluntarily. The chairman of the World Medical Association, Frank Ulrich Montgomery, explained in the newspapers of the Funke media group (Saturday) that the “scientific evidence on the sense of compulsory masks and vaccination” was “overwhelming”. The new corona infections also increased again at the weekend.

The Council of Experts wants to submit expert opinions

The Council of Experts, whose report Buschmann wants to wait for, is to present its opinion on June 30th on the review of the previous corona protection measures. However, the chairman of the committee, Stefan Huster, warned in the “Spiegel” against too high expectations of the final report of the commission. No recommendations will be made to politicians.

According to the FDP, future measures are to be discussed in the summer, and after the end of the Bundestag break, the Infection Protection Act is to be amended shortly before it expires on September 23. According to “Welt am Sonntag”, one of several possible proposals within the traffic light coalition is a so-called “O-to-O” regulation, according to which the obligation to wear masks indoors could be reintroduced from October to Easter.

Greens leader Omid Nouripour expects that an agreement in the traffic light coalition is possible. “I’m counting on us to take precautions together and prevent further lockdowns,” he told the news portal t-online.

In view of the rising incidences and the expected new wave in autumn, medical official Montgomery called on politicians to quickly draw up a plan of action. He said to the “Passauer Neue Presse” (Saturday): “There must not be a long, grueling party-political debate about it until the time when the child fell into the well.”

Debate on measures

The Marburger Bund medical association, on the other hand, gave the all-clear, at least for the summer months, and does not believe that any new mandatory measures are necessary in the foreseeable future. The numbers would probably continue to rise because of the more contagious omicron variant BA.5. “But in most cases it’s not bad for those who have been vaccinated,” said Susanne Johna, first chairwoman of the Marburger Bund, of the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”. On the other hand, it is important to protect vulnerable groups such as the elderly and those with previous illnesses.

Johna no longer believes that free corona citizen tests and vaccination centers will be necessary in the summer. The test regulation expires at the end of June, but according to Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD), it should be extended.

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) gave the nationwide seven-day incidence on Saturday morning at 445.1. The day before, the number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants per week was 427.8 (previous week: 348.9; previous month: 407.4) because some federal states had not transmitted any figures to the RKI on Corpus Christi (Thursday). Experts have been assuming for some time that there will be a large number of cases not recorded by the RKI – mainly because not all infected people have a PCR test done. Only positive PCR tests count in the statistics. In addition, late registrations or transmission problems can lead to a distortion of individual daily values.

dpa