Corona pandemic: Jens Spahn defends billion-dollar masks purchases within the Bundestag | EUROtoday

Almost six years after the Corona outbreak in Germany, the then Minister of Health Jens Spahn (CDU) defended its controversial choices on masks procurement within the Bundestag. “There was no blueprint back then,” mentioned Spahn within the Corona research fee to cope with the corona pandemic. It was clear: “It’s a matter of life and death.” “We absolutely wanted to avoid the images with many dead people from Bergamo, Italy, New York or London for Germany.” The main aim was to keep away from overloading the healthcare system.

Sphan went on to say that the entire world was within the Pandemic At the identical time they needed the identical factor, which is why the legislation of the strongest utilized when it got here to buying supplies corresponding to masks. Kings and heads of state have additionally contacted the suppliers. “It was difficult for me to call the department level.”

According to Oliver Sievers, member of the Federal Audit Office, the Ministry of Health purchased a complete of 5.8 billion masks for five.9 billion euros in spring 2020, of which 3.4 billion would have needed to be destroyed. “We saw this as massive overprocurement,” Sievers mentioned on the committee’s public listening to. Accompanying prices, for instance for storage, of round 510 million euros have been added, and extra are excellent. Once once more, the Court of Auditors gave the ministry a partly unhealthy report for its buying practices on the time: “You don’t buy when top prices are paid.”

“Significant costs and risks”

According to the report by interim particular consultant Sudhof, underneath Spahn the well being division had gone into masks procurement on a big scale “against the advice of its specialist departments” – and thus generated “significant costs and risks”. This is what it says within the take a look at report that Sudhof wrote on behalf of Spahn’s successor Karl Lauterbach (SPD). Sudhof referred to her findings to the MPs – and, from her perspective, criticized ongoing grievances. The documentation from the Corona interval is “held by a private actor and not in the Federal Ministry of Health”.

The research fee consists of 14 representatives and 14 exterior consultants. They ought to work on an interdisciplinary foundation to learn the way future pandemics will be higher acknowledged and managed. By the tip of June 2027, the fee is predicted to submit an in depth last report with particular directions for motion.