The chairman of the board of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians has spoken out in favor of lifting all corona isolation and quarantine obligations.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin Doctors and clinic representatives have vehemently opposed the demanded lifting of all corona isolation and quarantine obligations. “The hope that a shorter isolation or its omission will automatically reduce staff shortages may be a fallacy,” said the deputy chairwoman of the German Hospital Society, Henriette Neumeyer, the Handelsblatt.
On the contrary, a complete elimination of isolation could lead to higher numbers of infections and thus to more illness-related absences. There is also a risk that those who have tested positive with symptoms will feel social pressure to go to work anyway. In the future, however, one should consider “whether symptom-free employees should be given the opportunity to work in work areas without the risk of infection for patients and colleagues, if they want to.”
At the weekend, the chairman of the board of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, Andreas Gassen, advocated an end to the quarantine and isolation rules in order to alleviate the shortage of staff. Gassen received encouragement from the FDP. Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD), on the other hand, criticized such an approach as dangerous.
Doctors’ union: “Completely wrong signal”
Currently, for the general population, the mandatory isolation for people infected with corona can end after five days – with a “strongly recommended” negative test at the end. Healthcare workers must be symptom-free for 48 hours and have a negative PCR test taken no earlier than day five after infection.
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The chairwoman of the Marburger Bund doctors’ union, Susanne Johna, called an end to the isolation and quarantine requirements in clinics in an interview with the Handelsblatt “the completely wrong signal”. Patients must be able to rely on not being exposed to additional risks. “But that would be the case if treatment was given by acutely corona-infected staff, because doctors also have to be able to take off their protective masks and eat and drink something during working hours,” said Johna.
>> Read here: Head of the Medical Association warns of corona failures in clinics: “Health system is reaching its limits”
Although an FFP2 mask offers a high level of security, it would not filter 100 percent of the aerosols. If the wearer sweats heavily, the filter performance also decreases. Acutely infected health care workers would also pass the virus on to the workforce. “We are also aware of work bans for infectious diseases in other areas, for example for campylobacter infections and work in the food sector,” said Johna. “Nobody would think of questioning such requirements there.”
FDP politicians insist on “personal responsibility”
The epidemiologist Timo Ulrichs at the Chair for Global Health at the Acre University in Berlin argues similarly. Shortening the isolation and quarantine “even further or giving it up entirely does not make sense, but rather counterproductive to negligent,” he warned. “They are the only effective measures that are still in force.”
The argument that isolation would result in a lack of people in the workplace must be countered by the fact that without it, many more people would be affected at the same time, who would be absent with Covid-19.
>> Also read here: RKI registers 145,472 new corona infections – incidence at 678.7
In addition to the head of the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, several FDP politicians had spoken out in favor of an end to the duties. A discussion about it is correct, said FDP Vice Wolfgang Kubicki to the newspapers of the Funke media group.
The number of Covid 19 patients in the intensive care units is already increasing in the summer in the third year of corona.
(Photo: dpa)
“In my view, it is overdue, both epidemiologically and for reasons of personal responsibility, to let people make this decision again – as other European countries have long since done.” FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai made a similar statement. He warned of staff failures due to isolation requirements.
The Verdi union was appalled by these statements. The demand from the FDP “shows little sense of responsibility,” said Verdi board member Sylvia Bühler the Handelsblatt. “Infectious people belong at home and not in the company or in public, whether in retail, public transport or gastronomy.”
“Infectious people belong at home and not in the company or in public, whether in retail, public transport or gastronomy.” Verdi board member Sylvia Bühler
Anything else would counteract the previous measures that had been taken to protect human life. “Without quarantine, there is a risk of what should be prevented from the start: the health infrastructure will be overwhelmed,” Bühler warned. The demand is particularly cynical towards employees in the healthcare sector. “They have been suffering from the extreme stress caused by Corona for more than two years, have the greatest risk of infection and would then suffer twice as much from the increasing workload in the clinics.”
More: Does a fourth corona vaccination also help younger people? Mixed reactions to Lauterbach’s move