Lauterbach's bumpy attempt at an explanation of the logic gaps in the mask requirement

When Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) talks about the new FFP2 mask requirement, he gets a bit emotional. He would like to thank his colleague Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) and the factions of the traffic light coalition for “making room for the scientific situation”, explains Lauterbach when deliberating on the new Infection Protection Act in the Bundestag.

He knows that a stricter mask requirement is difficult to explain with a milder variant. There are people, according to Lauterbach with a view to the AfD, to whom this can never be explained. "We stick together," Lauterbach calls loudly into the hall. FFP2 masks are now “consensus in medicine”. One conforms here with science and with the expert advice, said the Minister of Health to loud applause.

In his speech, Lauterbach tries to invoke a unity that actually doesn't exist. The question of which areas of public life should be subject to a mask requirement and whether it should be a medical surgical mask or an FFP2 mask was the crucial point of contention in the negotiations between the traffic light parties on the new Infection Protection Act, which was passed on Thursday became.

The Bundestag has approved the amendment to the Infection Protection Act. Health Minister Karl Lauterbach is convinced that Germany will start the autumn better than last year. He rules out lockdowns: "We will not be dependent on it."

Source: WORLD

According to reports, the FDP only wanted to make masks compulsory in hospitals and nursing homes, while the SPD and Greens also insisted on long-distance and air traffic. In the last few meters, pressure from the liberals finally led to an agreement to maintain the mask requirement on trains, but not on airplanes. Instead, and apparently in return, the mask requirement was extended to doctor's offices - but only for the patients, not the staff.

A distinction that is difficult to explain to citizens in terms of communication. The attempts of the traffic light politicians to explain this are correspondingly bumpy, especially when it comes to air traffic. According to Lauterbach, for example, more people would simply take the train than fly.

The "air circulation" in the plane is "not perfect", but still much more intensive than in a bus or a train. If the corona situation makes it necessary, the federal government will “not hesitate” to reintroduce an FFP2 mask requirement by ordinance on airplanes. An announcement that should make the FDP frown.

Even the Greens are apparently not happy about the mask compromise. The virus is not interested in whether it infects people on the bus, train or car, said Janosch Dahmen, health policy spokesman for the parliamentary group. "Especially as a doctor, I can only appeal to continue to wear a mask on the plane, even if we adapt the rules here to the other European rules."

The regulation is not unscientific, but a harmonization of the European rules "in the sense of traceability," said Dahmen. He does not mention that rail traffic can also cross borders.

Aside from the point of contention about the FFP2 mask requirement, the traffic light parties in the debate are almost without exception satisfied with the new law. Anyone who wants to act responsibly can “agree to the bill with a clear conscience,” says the Greens parliamentary group leader, Maria Klein-Schmeink. The template is with a sense of proportion and at the same time gives a maximum of room for manoeuvre.

The SPD deputies also expressly defend the law. The public approval of the two parties represents a big contrast to March, when the currently valid Infection Protection Act was passed in the Bundestag. At that time, Klein-Schmeink said, with a view to the abolition of many corona measures, that it was a draft “that we Greens are not satisfied with”.

Within the FDP, on the other hand, there is more rumbling. After controversial debates in recent weeks, seven MPs will vote against the law on Thursday. These include Bundestag Vice President Wolfgang Kubicki, ex-Secretary General Linda Teuteberg and MP Frank Schäffler. In the last vote in March, there was not a single negative vote.

The opposition made it easy for the traffic light parties in the debate. The Union and the left repeatedly criticize what they see as the chaotic legislative process and the short-term changes, but remain largely vague when it comes to concrete criticism of the content. "I think it's a shame that the opportunity is being missed again today to shape this autumn as a transition to normality, more personal responsibility, more pragmatism," says the health policy spokesman for the Union faction Tino Sorge (CDU). This has long been the case in other European countries. He leaves largely open which specific measures he would remove from the legislative package.

The health policy spokeswoman for the left-wing faction Kathrin Vogler accuses the federal government of being too close to the lobbyists in the aviation industry, who had vehemently campaigned for the mask requirement to be suspended. Equipping the schools with sufficient air filters and developing a better test strategy was also missed.

The AfD does not make any direct reference to the law, but presents testimonials from those affected who are said to have been harmed due to restrictions on freedom or vaccination.

Overall, it seems as if Lauterbach could have prevailed much better against Minister of Justice Buschmann in the negotiations than before. For example, the Infection Protection Act still contains the catalog of measures from last winter, which is currently closed, for emergencies.

This means that if the pandemic situation deteriorates significantly, the Bundestag could again declare the so-called epidemic situation of national scope. Then school closures and curfews would be conceivable again.

However, Buschmann uses every opportunity to assert that this is extremely unlikely. And says in the Bundestag: "It would have to open up hell among us."

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