"Spahn, Germany's health minister from 2018 to 2021, played a crucial role at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Spahn was called by an "enquete-commission," a committee appointed by the Bundestag consisting of 14 members of parliament from all parliamentary groups as well as external experts, which is currently examining how the German state acted during the coronaviirus pandemic. Spahn, who is now parliamentary group leader for Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), procured huge quantities of protective face masks at apparently greatly inflated prices."
"One employee of the Federal Audit Office, which monitors government expenditure, said Spahn's Health Ministry bought about 5.8 billion masks at a unit price of around 1 each. Well over half of them were never distributed and later had to be destroyed. "We see this as massive overprocurement," said the expert from the Federal Audit Office, which monitors the use of taxpayers' money. The health minister ultimately failed to accept or pay for a large number of the masks he ordered."
"In parliament, Spahn defended his decisions. The primary goal, he said, was to contain the spread of the virus to avoid overburdening the healthcare system. With regard to the mask purchases, he said, "the whole world wanted the same thing at the same time. It was a matter of life and death." In the past, he has admitted that in hindsight he should have done things differently."
Jens Spahn served as Germany's health minister from 2018 to 2021 and led pandemic response efforts at the start of COVID-19 in 2020. A Bundestag enquete-commission called him as a witness to examine state actions during the pandemic. The Health Ministry procured about 5.8 billion masks at roughly €1 per unit, with well over half never distributed and later destroyed; the Federal Audit Office described the purchases as massive overprocurement. The government faces potential payments around €2.3 billion if courts rule against it in numerous lawsuits. Spahn defended the purchases as necessary to contain viral spread and protect healthcare capacity while acknowledging hindsight errors.
Read at www.dw.com
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