Germany’s Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn has spurred controversy with comments made last week on his country’s response to the Covid19 pandemic. His country’s lockdown policies were too harsh, Spahn said, and they will not be repeated.
“With the knowledge of today, I can tell you no hairdressers would have to close and no shops,” Spahn said. “That will not happen again. We won’t need visitor bans in care homes, either.”
Germany could avoid a second lockdown because people had “learned in the last months how to protect ourselves”, using masks instead of closing shops and services, he added.
Spahn’s comments were made during a tour western Germany where he was heckled at almost every stop by critics of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s administration’s coronavirus policies. At one stop Mr Spahn, who is married to a man, was spat on and called a “gay pig.”
His comments have triggered widespread disgust in Germany as well as calls for investigations into the decisions made on Germany’s Covid19 response.
Photo by Michał Beim