One year Lauterbach: Minister Breathless

Karl Lauterbach is still warning of Corona, when the next acute crisis is already piling up: There are hardly any free beds for children with respiratory infections. The minister tackles a lot – but is he doing the right thing?

Karl Lauterbach stands next to a young mother in the St. Joseph Hospital in Berlin. The woman is gently holding her newborn baby wrapped in a blanket. “Your first child?” asks the Minister of Health, somewhat awkwardly. No, it’s already the third child, she replies. “You see, routine attitude,” attests Lauterbach to the young woman and bows slightly. It is probably no coincidence that Lauterbach chose the single hospital with the highest birth rate in Germany for the press conference at the end of November. 4548 babies were born here last year. He wants to do more for children. The SPD politician says he already planned to do that before he became a minister.

At that moment, one could almost have forgotten why the SPD politician primarily came to the ministerial office a year ago: the popular pandemic explainer was one of the most sought-after experts in the Corona crisis. But after almost three years of the pandemic, many people’s fear of the virus has noticeably decreased. Other issues are more worrying. The Berlin virologist Christian Drosten speaks in a newspaper interview of “signs for the coming end of the pandemic”. Even if the virologist, like the health minister who always warns, assumes that the numbers will increase again in winter.

Lauterbach must have read the interview with Drosten when he took the lectern in the Bundestag at the end of November. There are indications that the virus has reached a dead end, said the minister. But for a few months it will get even harder. After that, you will probably be able to deal with the virus differently. For Lauterbach, that’s reason enough to again warn against carelessness. “If we lose now, please don’t lose patience,” he said almost pleadingly in the Bundestag.

He warns and warns and warns

Lauterbach’s followers can read his concerns in real time on Twitter: warnings of rising corona numbers, an increase in deaths and excess mortality, i.e. an increased death rate. “We have an old population and we have vaccination gaps in the old population,” warns the minister. Lauterbach refers to an upcoming winter wave and around 1000 people who are currently dying from or with the corona virus each week.

But the connection with Corona can often not be clearly proven. The statistics also include deceased people with previous illnesses for which the cause of death cannot be clearly proven. This tendency has increased significantly compared to previous corona waves, says virologist Martin Stürmer. “Nowadays we have completely different conditions in the population due to vaccinations, therapy options, basic immunization or basic herd immunity.” For many people who are now dying, the detection of corona is an incidental finding and has nothing to do with the actual cause of death.

In a permanent clinch with the FDP

Lauterbach’s pandemic warnings and warnings are now largely unheard. So far, he has hardly been able to enforce his cautious Corona course in the traffic light coalition. The introduction of general vaccination failed in April in the Bundestag. The vaccination requirement for staff in health and care facilities is to be phased out. The compromise with Justice Minister Marco Buschmann in late summer for pandemic protection measures until spring 2023 was hard-fought.

At the time, Lauterbach seemed firmly convinced that the federal states would all exercise their right to make masks compulsory indoors again in autumn and winter. The opposite was the case. Several federal states have now decided to end the obligation to isolate people infected with corona. A step that she had encouraged FDP Justice Minister Buschmann to take. The obligation to wear masks in local public transport is already being questioned by several countries. Much to Lauterbach’s displeasure, who criticizes the states for the “outbidding competition” and fears a relaxation spiral in the middle of winter.

Virologist striker doesn’t think much of it either. Mainly because Long Covid is still an unexplained problem and because he fears a strong wave of colds in addition to Corona. This could lead to a large number of failures in the critical infrastructure.

Karl-Josef Laumann, Minister of Health from North Rhine-Westphalia, sees it similarly. For the time being, the CDU politician wants to stick to the obligation to wear masks on buses and trains and to the obligation to isolate. “I don’t find the mask particularly restrictive of freedom,” says Laumann ARD Capital Studio. He also sees it very pragmatically. Of course, the mask requirement on trains and trams can only be legally imposed because of the Corona Infection Protection Act. The measure is now also helping in the flu wave. The hospitals in North Rhine-Westphalia are currently more burdened due to staff shortages due to the flu than due to Corona. “In addition, we are only at the beginning of winter,” says Laumann.

Heavy workload in ministry

But there is more to do than fighting Corona. The projects are piling up in the Ministry of Health. The employees of the house should really groan under the workload. Lauterbach wants to tackle a lot, with tremendous speed and often many things at the same time. Since taking office, he has introduced 48 ordinances and twelve laws. Not everything may work out right away. His law for the financial stabilization of the health insurance funds brought midwives to the barricades. They feared they would fall victim to austerity measures in hospitals. After fierce protests, Lauterbach gave in and corrected the plan. But the impression remained that the minister prefers to listen to himself.

He also has the feeling that Lauterbach sometimes just does what he wants, says NRW colleague Laumann. On a human level, however, Lauterbach is a “fine guy”. And if you text him asking for a chat, it usually takes less than three hours before you can have a reasonable conversation on the phone.

Laumann would also like to have a direct connection to Lauterbach when it comes to hospital reform. Lauterbach is planning big things: He wants to reduce the economic pressure in the clinics. Laumann welcomes that, but: “Hospital planning is a matter for the federal states. Lauterbach has to coordinate the reform well with us.”

The Federal Minister of Health will not run out of work in the second year of his term of office: dealing with Corona, hospital reform, lack of care, legalization of cannabis, digitization in the health system, supply bottlenecks in medicines. Lauterbach’s to-do list is long.

At the beginning of December, a good week after his visit to the obstetrics and children’s ward at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Berlin, Lauterbach was standing in the atrium of his ministry. His press office is overwhelmed by inquiries because intensive care and emergency medicine specialists are sounding the alarm. The number of respiratory infections in children is rising sharply, beds are scarce. Emergency patients sometimes have to be turned away. Lauterbach announces that nurses from other stations should help out. It’s just an emergency measure. A permanent solution takes time. A scarce commodity in Lauterbach’s ministerial life.