It's one of the shortest proposals in the draft resolution for Wednesday's prime ministers' conference, but it packs a punch.

Under point eight, Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) asks the federal and state governments in four dry lines to disempower the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI) and the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in an important field - although he even given them these powers only a short time before.

The point is to withdraw the new passage in the Covid 19 Protection Measures Exception Ordinance that enabled the institutes to independently determine the status of those who have recovered and those who have been vaccinated.

Christian Geinitz

Business correspondent in Berlin

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The heads of government of the federal and state governments had agreed on the innovation in January, after which Lauterbach's house had changed the regulation accordingly and passed it through the Bundestag and Bundesrat.

So the matter had the support not only of Parliament but also of the countries, including the Union-led ones.

The amendment, which came into force in mid-January, provided for a so-called right of reference for the first time: as soon as the PEI and the RKI consider modifications to the vaccinated or recovered status to be scientifically necessary, these changes should come into effect immediately after publication on the RKI homepage.

This gave the institutes a quasi-legislative competence, without the involvement of the government and the parliamentary chambers.

The idea behind it was that the previous way, according to the recommendations of the scientists in the ministry, had to initiate corresponding regulations, would take too long in a pandemic.

Since politicians follow the experts anyway, so the logic goes, they could also issue the necessary rules right away.

But the first application of the right to refer immediately turned out to be a fiasco: The RKI surprisingly halved the recovered status to three months, which not only contradicted other countries, but also caught politicians and the public cold.

Lauterbach, who knew nothing about the RKI decision in advance, had to be reprimanded by the equally surprised country heads.

Thousands of people fell overnight from the recovered status that was believed to be safe and that was associated with certain advantages.

The chairman of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, Andreas Gassen, told the FAZ that it was correct in principle for the government to obtain scientific expertise before making decisions on how to deal with vaccinated or recovered people.

“Politicians cannot judge that alone.” However, the assessment by the RKI and the rapid publication, which was not coordinated with the Ministry of Health, on reducing the convalescent status from six to three months unsettled many people and at the same time surprised many experts.

"That was a surprising solo effort by the RKI," said Gassen.