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More and more federal states are adopting a mask requirement in Germany: on Tuesday night there were already ten countries, on Wednesday the remaining six federal states did the same.
There is still no uniform recommendation from the federal government.
The Chronology Mask of Chaos
▶ ︎ January 28: Due to the virus epidemic in Wuhan, people with facial masks are increasingly on the streets of Germany. On this day, the WDR asks if the masks are necessary for the population and refers to the World Health Organization (WHO). It says: If a pandemic spreads across borders, it expressly does not recommend masks for the entire population.
The same day, the vice president of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Lars Schaade, said that in Asia it was “in a way an act of courtesy” to put on a mouth guard as a sick person to spread less pathogens.
Virologist Christian Drosten (48) added that in the course of the Sars epidemic in 2002/2003, some studies for so-called FFP3 masks wanted to suggest a protective effect. “But these were not normal masks like those seen on the street in Asia or in our operating room, but special fine particle masks.”
Normal masks, on the other hand, would only help against “frequent gripping of the mouth and nose, that is, smear infection.”
▶ ︎ January 30th Health Minister Jens Spahn (39, CDU) told BILD: “You do not need a mouth guard because the virus cannot be transmitted through breathing.”
▶ ︎ Im February The Federal Association of German Pharmaceutical Associations (ABDA) approves the position against protective masks. She explains: “Breathing masks for healthy people are unnecessary.”
▶ ︎ February 24th: The RKI remains with its evaluation. There is insufficient evidence that healthy people significantly reduce their risk of infection by wearing mouth and nose protection. Using a mask on the street as a healthy person to protect themselves from viruses supposedly existing in the air, experts have repeatedly described it as meaningless.
In contrast, users of such masks could be weighed with false safety, so hygiene measures, such as good hand hygiene, could be neglected, writes the RKI and appeals to the World Health Organization (WHO ).
▶ ︎ March 11: At a press conference with RKI Chancellor and Chief Lothar Wieler, Jens Spahn renewed the rejection: “Even the classic surgical mouth guard that many people wear provides very manageable protection, to put it this way. This is not necessary if you follow the rules I described earlier regarding respiratory diseases. “
▶ ︎ 23 of March: In his NDR podcast, Drosten explains that if everyone wears a mask, the move starts to make a lot of sense: then the spread of the infection can be expected to slow somewhat, but only at close range. “The closer to the source, the better. That is why the mask must be in the source and not in the receiver, “he explained. But it does not protect uninfected people: “But there is simply no literature or, depending on how you want to interpret it, there is almost no evidence in the literature that this can help.”
The tenor: there is almost nothing for your own protection. But the risk of infecting other people is slightly reduced.
▶ ︎ End of March: The RKI emphasizes that self-made nose and mouth protection or another textile barrier for people with acute respiratory infections to protect other people also makes sense. “On the other hand, there is insufficient evidence that the use of mouth-nose protection significantly reduces the risk of infection for a healthy person who uses it.”
▶ ︎ March 30th: Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (33) announces mandatory mouth protection in Austrian supermarkets. Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (53, SPD) at the time on BILD: “If it makes sense, something like that shouldn’t be excluded.”
However, the World Health Organization (WHO) said: There is no evidence that any of it is obtained. “Our advice: We do not recommend wearing a face mask if you are not sick,” said WHO Director of Emergencies Michael Ryan.
▶ ︎ March 31st: The mouthguard obligation is decided in Jena, it applies from April 6. Discussions begin at the national level about a mask requirement. CSU chief Markus Söder (53, CSU) explains: “Nothing can be ruled out.”
The same day, the president of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, Andreas Gassen, told Handelsblatt that “the obligation to wear” a mouth guard is a “purely symbolic policy.” It conveys misleading assurance, “but it hardly helps at all.”
▶ ︎ April 1: Simple masks, such as those used in operating rooms, are also considered by virologist Alexander Kekulé to be “absolutely sensible.” “It also works if you tie an old T-shirt around your nose and mouth,” he told the weekly newspaper “Die Zeit.”
I find it very terrible that the Robert Koch Institute still maintains that these masks are useless. That is not true. First of all, protect others, says Kekulé. “On the other hand, you protect yourself: not 100 percent, but up to a point.”
▶ ︎ April 2 For a long time, the RKI had only advised sick people to wear mouth and nose protection in public. The agency is now completely changing its assessment: Even a simple protective mask can reduce the risk of “infecting another person by coughing, sneezing, or talking.” The assumption is obvious that so-called “makeshift masks” have a protective effect
Meanwhile, the RKI website says: “For the population, RKI recommends using a mouth and nose cover (textile barrier in the sense of an MNS) in certain situations in public space.”
▶ ︎ April 6: The chancellor also changes her mind at a press conference. Angela Merkel (65, CDU) explains: “In the beginning there was more reluctance to use these masks, to everyday masks, if I can say it now. Now the opinion of the experts is changing and, of course, we will not oppose it. “
▶ ︎ April 15 Merkel and the field managers “strongly recommend” wearing a mask, but there is no obligation to wear a mask.
▶ ︎ April 17th Saxony is the first federal state to adopt a mask requirement: it has been in effect since Monday. Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (44, CDU) said: “We need mouth protection, we need nasal protection. When in doubt, a fabric is enough, when in doubt, a scarf is also enough. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the decision is also valid: it will apply to local transport from April 27, for purchases only recommended.
▶ ︎ April 20th Bavaria is following suit. CSU chief Markus Söder: “Appeals alone will probably not be the necessary safeguard”, which is why the first state in West Germany has now decided to take this step.
▶ ︎ April, the 21st Berlin, Saxony-Anhalt, Baden-Württemberg, Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Hesse, Thuringia are following suit.
▶ ︎ April 22 “Respiratory masks definitely protect other people and ourselves to some degree,” says virologist and epidemiologist Prof. Alexander Kekulé. He advocates a comprehensive mask requirement, he says in the morning magazine ZDF.
At noon, all remaining federal states moved to: Rhineland-Palatinate, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saarland, and Bremen. At BILD, the Mayor of Bremen, Andreas Bovenschulte (54, SPD) said: “Bremen also decided to do this.” Before there was a “national mosaic”, “we are there”.
NRW country chief Armin Laschet (59) commented on the chaos of the masks on Wednesday: calling it a “uncoordinated decision-making situation,” he warned that a mask “should not create false security for people. “and spoke out against a duty for schools!
And Jens Spahn once again assumed the obligation to wear a mask: “Scientific knowledge has changed. That’s why it makes sense to keep your distance, comply with hygiene rules, and wear everyday masks in certain situations. “
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