For the first time, Chancellor Angela Merkel (67, CDU) openly admitted the greatest government failure in the Corona crisis: the protection of old people’s homes in winter 2020, when at least 30,000 people in old people’s and nursing homes died of Covid infection – many of them without your loved ones …
It was “the weakest moment in fighting the pandemic,” said Merkel in an interview with the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. A phase about which she is “still sad”. “Last Christmas at Christmas”, when tests were already available, despite all the efforts of the federal government, it took too long for the care facilities to implement the protective test regime.
The question in the “SZ” interview: What has depressed you most in this time of crisis?
Merkel’s answer: “I am still sad about one phase: That was Christmas last year. At that time the tests were in place. And yet too little was tested in the old people’s and nursing homes. I personally tried to force this around Christmas in telephone conversations with those responsible in the area. We provided the tests for free and also covered the personnel costs. Nevertheless, it took too long for this to be implemented in the nursing homes. That was the weakest moment in fighting the pandemic. “
In BILD, the head of statutory health insurance physicians, Andreas Gassen (59, KBV), acknowledges: “It speaks for the personal greatness of the outgoing Chancellor to admit such a failure.” Such a mistake should not be repeated.
Because: In October 2020, Gassen, together with the virologists Hendrik Streeck (44, University Hospital Bonn) and Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit (42, University of Hamburg), called for better protection of old people’s homes – instead of simply relying on lockdowns.
At that time, Merkel brushed the concepts aside: one could not “completely shield” risk groups, declared the Chancellor in the Bundestag. The test concepts were only implemented when it was too late. She explained that “the risk groups include not only the elderly, but also those with previous illnesses, and that there are very, very serious disease courses even in very healthy people who have no previous illness.” Therefore, the other concepts did not convince them.
Specifically, Merkel referred to the paper by Gassen, Streeck and Schmidt-Chanasit, in which they drafted a protection concept for old people’s homes and had it on October 28, 2020. Visitors to nursing homes and hospitals should therefore only be allowed access with a negative test and an FFP2 mask. Contact tracking should prioritize the appropriate groups. One must learn to live with the virus and rely on the individual responsibility of the citizens, so the tenor of the three experts.
On the same day, Merkel met with the prime ministers for the Corona summit. The advice from the KBV paper was ignored, and instead the so-called “breakwater lockdown” with contact restrictions and closed restaurants was decided.
The “breakwater lockdown” came into effect on November 2nd, restaurants and hotels had to close – but many old people were left without adequate protection. The result: There were thousands of corona outbreaks in nursing and old people’s homes, and tens of thousands of residents died. In many places, the protection concepts did not take effect until it was too late. Over half of the corona deaths in winter 2020 came from the old people’s home.
Do not repeat mistakes in Corona winter 2021
Germany is now facing the second Corona winter. This time, however, with a vaccination rate of more than 70 percent, available rapid tests and knowledge of past mistakes.
Eugen Brysch, board member of the German Foundation for Patient Protection, calls for free rapid tests for all those in need of care: “The 2.3 million people in need in Germany have to be protected with daily free tests.”
Means daily free tests for:
- 1 million people in outpatient care
- 900,000 people in inpatient care
- 400,000 people in hospitals
- as well as all employees in the facilities and the respective contact persons
The “important vaccination status” alone is not enough here, according to Brysch. And further: “This is how we prevent hundreds of thousands of people in nursing homes from getting lonely, from getting sick or dying from the virus. To live with the virus, no school, cinema or restaurant has to be closed. It is not important to do everything, but to do the right thing. You don’t need a lockdown for that. “
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