Berlin: Epidemiologist who was educated from Harvard with a hobby for a red bow tie, Karl Lauterbach became the name of the household in Germany during a pandemic using Twitter and television appearance to urge the fast implementation of new ideas against Coronavirus.
As a new German Minister of Health, a 57-year-old Social Democratic Member (SPD) had to give more than the words to the public who was frustrated to expect the new government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz to carve out the way out of the pandemic.
Germany, was praised during the first Covid-19 wave because it maintained relatively low death and infection, recorded 527 deaths on Wednesday in the fourth wave that had a tense hospital and forced authority to limit not vaccinated.
Health officials have welcomed the appointment of Lauterbach’s meeting and said that his first priority must be to solve resistance to vaccination in a country where only 69.2% of the population was fully inoculated compared to 87.3% in Portugal.
“The main challenge he faced was convincing those who were still not vaccinated for vaccinated,” said Dirk Heinrich, Chair of the German Virchowbund Association practiced a doctor.
“He must motivate them with a positive campaign and a simple message: ‘If you are vaccinated, you will do yourself and the people around you.'” The government of Angela Merkel who came out was criticized because of communication full of the public so far.
Pandemic which resulted in confusion and frustration.
The critics referred to the government’s decision in October to recommend Booster to people aged 60 years and over, contrary to the scientific committee who recommended extra shots to those aged 70 or more.
Lauterbach urged the government at the end of the summer to start offering booster, pointing to Israel which in July became the first country in the world to launch a booster campaign.
‘Risky bets’ in April he refers to research that shows the effectiveness of a single vaccine dose in reducing hospitalization.
Because of the rare doses of vaccines when they were first available, he urged the government into space up to 12 weeks the gap between the first and second Jab so that more people received their first shot, the first strategy was adopted in the UK.
The Maverick intervention is well placed and the background of the working class – which has made it more than 700,000 followers on Twitter – making it a credible voice among the public frustrated with the political elite.
During his first address to his staff at the Ministry of Health on Wednesday, Lauterbach said the management of Pandemi would be guided by scientific evidence, not political considerations.
“Health policy can only succeed if anchored in scientific evidence.
Our main goal is to end this pandemic.
We will send a booster shot as soon as possible.” Thorsten Benner from the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPI) said Scholz had no choice but to appoint Lauterbach as Minister of Health provided the status of “pop star”.
“I think Scholz’s hope is that if Lauterbach is successful in the management of everyday pandemic, Scholz can focus on priorities that regulate another,” Benner said.
“The alternative is to live with Lauterbach as a parallel health minister of liver.” The German vaccination campaign has taken over the past two weeks with almost a million jabs sent every day.
Benner said Lauterbach’s insistence on scientific guidance could make him at odds with colleagues at the Scholz coalition alliance of his SPD with Greens and the free Pro-Business Democrats (FDP).
FDP in particular can oppose future plans to impose harder restrictions on everyday life if the wave if it is not tamed to protect fragile economic recovery.
“Scholz bets are at risk,” Benner said.
“Lauterbach knows that if he regulates and get rid of coalition partners and Scholz, it will be the end of his tenure.”