7:57 pm: Are test standards deliberately lowered?
In a coalition dispute over inferior corona safety masks, Union Labor Minister Hubert Hail (SPD) accused some sections of the union of being a diversionary maneuver. “You have to be careful that a factual debate is not covered up. Also, I have already seen some on the union side trying to explain the whole thing to a purely party-political dispute so that they do not talk about it,” Hale told Spiegel. “There is an attempt to confuse the public with technical issues so that people do not understand what it really is.”
The “Spiegel” report on the handling of substandard corona masks allegedly ordered in China is the background to the debate over the black-and-red alliance. According to the plans of the Ministry of Health, high quality untested masks should go to facilities for the disabled or homeless. This was avoided after the intervention of the Social Democrat-led Ministry of Labor. Spann denied the allegations, and calls for his resignation came from within the Social Democrats.
The Federal Ministry of Health has made several attempts to “lower test standards so that masks purchased elsewhere in the market can be placed during distribution campaigns,” Hale reiterated. “My experts in the ministry rejected it because, in our view, the safety of these masks cannot be guaranteed, and we have succeeded.”
That was really the end of the debate for him. “But now came the report about it. When the public discusses a topic like this, it is the job of the Union Ministers to provide real information about the processes. The Federal Ministry of Labor said we did it.”
Union representatives have repeatedly denied that masks provide adequate protection against corona virus infection. “That’s not true,” said CDU general secretary Paul Simiak.
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