Row as Germany heads into full Christmas lockdown

Prominent German scientists spoke out against the country’s new lockdown on Monday as a senior minister called on people not to go Christmas shopping.

Peter Altmaier, the economy minister, urged Germans not to crowd city centres in what will be the final two days of shopping before full lockdown begins on Wednesday, warning: “The next two days could be decisive”.

But senior German scientists condemned the decision to go into full lockdown and called instead for targeted measures to protect the elderly and most at risk.

“The most important thing is that we need a sustainable strategy. A sequence of lockdowns is not a long-term strategy,” Prof Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit, a virologist at Hamburg university.

“Don't get me wrong, I'm still in favor of additional measures...But the highest priority must be to protect the most vulnerable.”

Prof Schmidt-Chanasit was one of three scientists to speak out in a series of interviews with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.

“Why are we now facing a full lockdown with all the immense damage it will cause?  That doesn't make sense to me at all,” said Prof Gerd Antes, a retired medical statistician formerly of Freiburg university. “We have to focus on the protection of risk groups.”

Klaus Stöhr, a former head of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) flu programme, cast doubt on whether the new lockdown would achieve any more than Germany’s existing measures, which he said had already reduced flu infections by 90 per cent.

“That means the spread of the coronavirus has presumably also been reduced by almost 90 per cent,” he said. “You have to ask yourself: is it possible to get the numbers any lower in Germany?”

The country has been under “lockdown lite” for six weeks, with restaurants and places of entertainment closed, and facemasks compulsory in shops and crowded areas.

In an apparent U-turn,  Jens Spahn, the German health minister, called on the European Union to speed up its approval of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine.

Just two weeks ago, Mr Spahn dismissed the UK’s swift approval of the vaccine, saying: “The point is not to be first but to have safe and effective vaccines. Nothing is more important than confidence when it comes to vaccines.”

But in a series of tweets on Sunday he appeared to change his mind, saying: “All necessary data on BioNTech are available. UK + US have already issued approvals….review and approval should take place as soon as possible...this is also a question of citizens’ confidence in the EU’s ability to act.”