It is only a short appearance that the Federal Minister of Health completed in his house on Wednesday. And yet these almost 25 minutes could be decisive in two respects: On the one hand for the political fate of Karl Lauterbach, whose record as a minister has so far been rather mixed. And secondly, for the country that has to get through a third autumn of the pandemic – if possible better than through the two previous ones.
Lauterbach invited at very short notice to present his pandemic strategy for the coming months. Since he took over the ministerial office in December, there has been a lot of unrest around him: public dispute with the head of the Robert Koch Institute, public dispute with the federal states, chaotic communication about the end of the mask requirement and the quarantine regulation – Lauterbach’s first Months in office have been a wild ride. The success of his pandemic concept also determines the interpretation of his term of office: If he now gets the country through autumn and winter better than his predecessor, the difficulties of the beginning will only have been skirmishes in retrospect. If not, the overall balance doesn’t look good. So how does he intend to go about it?
“We have to be prepared for all eventualities,” Lauterbach told journalists. All eventualities, that means: It could be that a virus variant dominates in autumn, which mostly causes only mild courses, like Omikron is currently doing. But it could also be that a new, more dangerous variant changes the situation completely. It could be that the current vaccines fit perfectly. Or that you need an adapted vaccine. Nobody can say how it will come about. This is exactly why he will buy the appropriate vaccine for all conceivable scenarios, Lauterbach announces. Everyone who needs or just wants a fourth vaccination should definitely be able to be cared for. Whether it will be just a few people or many millions depends on the infection process.
Therefore, unfortunately, one cannot prevent the ordering of a new vaccine on the one hand, while many millions of old doses are about to expire and will probably have to be disposed of, says Lauterbach. “One lesson from the pandemic is: we never want to have too little vaccine again.” You can’t pretend, says the minister, that the vaccine currently in stock will certainly be enough “to get by in the fall”. That is why 830 million euros are being made available for the purchase of new vaccines.
According to Lauterbach, the current pandemic is not over
The vaccination infrastructure should also be maintained – the federal government wants to support vaccination centers with 100 million euros per month, says Lauterbach. An information campaign to call for vaccinations is also being worked on again for the autumn. Incidentally, anyone who is already basic immunized should only need one additional dose, not several, even in the case of a vaccine adapted to a new variant.
According to the Federal Ministry of Health, 63.1 million people in Germany have been vaccinated at least twice, which corresponds to 75.8 percent of the total population. A total of 59.6 percent of the population have received a booster vaccination so far.
On Thursday and Friday, Lauterbach also wants to consult with the health ministers of the other G7 countries on how future pandemics can be identified more quickly and combated more effectively. According to Lauterbach, the current pandemic is not over – at the same time the risk of new pandemics is increasing, not least as a result of global warming. You have to prepare for that too.