The health minister has warned that the numbers will skyrocket over Christmas.
(Photo: Getty Images)
Is someone shouting “Fire!” To present themselves as an energetic firefighter, even when there is no fire? The Union accuses the new SPD health minister Karl Lauterbach. His party, together with their traffic light partners, is targeting ex-CDU head of department Jens Spahn, because he allegedly screwed up on ordering sufficient vaccine.
Both parties, who until a few days ago pulled together on the grand coalition coronavirus, are already playing their new role as government and opposition very well.
A day later, there isn’t much left of the excitement. After a few phone calls, the manufacturer Moderna will bring forward planned deliveries so that a sufficient amount of vaccine should be secured for the first quarter.
And who was right now? Both sides somehow: Spahn had ordered the vaccine, but not enough for the vaccination rate that the traffic lights and their alarmist minister of health, in view of the advance of Omikron, would force them in January and not in March.
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So is everything okay now? Not at all. Lauterbach and his ministerial colleagues in the federal states now have to ensure that the doses ordered find their way into the practices and vaccination centers and from there into the upper arms of the citizens.
If they have to queue for hours for the syringe or if agreed vaccination appointments are canceled, record numbers of 1.5 million booster vaccinations in one day could soon be a thing of the past.
Lauterbach has to prove itself
The problem also remains that Moderna is on the dump or can be delivered quickly, but the citizens prefer to have Biontech injected and the family doctors are reluctant to talk them out of it.
So there is still a lot to do for the new Minister of Health. For now, Lauterbach has proven that he can quickly turn his talk show alarmism into concrete government action. And he even explicitly defended his predecessor, when it would have been easy to put responsibility on the old government.
So the long time of the grand coalition is still having a slight effect. Or is it the regret that the warning about the shortage economy then went a little too far?
Whatever the case: The citizens of Lauterbach will measure whether he succeeds in protecting them from the dangerous Omikron variant. This test is still pending.
More: This is how high the corona vaccination rate is in Germany and worldwide