Germany's Minister of Health - Interview

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In a new video, Ben Geisler and Professor Dr. rer. nat. Ulrich Mansmann interview Professor Dr.med. Dr. s.c. Karl W. Lauterbach, MdB, the new Federal Minister of Health of Germany. He was appointed just after recording the interview; in fact, he got a phone call from the then-designated Chancellor Olaf Scholz while we spoke.
Professor Lauterbach studied medicine in Germany and public health, health policy, and ethics in the U.S. He then chaired the Institute of Health Economics and Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Cologne. As Professor Lauterbach explains in the interview, after first advising politicians and serving in several commissions, he become a Member of Parliament himself in 2005.
In a wide-ranging discussion, we ask Professor Lauterbach, among other topics, about his dual role as a both a scientist and a politician in the pandemic; what he thinks of the current public debate; threats to the knowledge society; contributions from scientists in Germany and what else we other studies and data infrastructure would have been helpful; how he gets a hold of the newest studies, and what helps him interpreted them.

0:00 Intro
1:17 How (and why) Professor Lauterbach went into politics
6:08 The COVID-19 research landscape in Germany
10:31 Digital data collection and infrastructure
17:11 How to get ahold of new studies (and how to interpret them)
19:54 Science journalism
24:22 Communicating science to the public, “false balance”, and advisory board (Corona-Waisen)
29:20 Professor Lauterbach’s personal situation
32:16 Is the political debate still fact-based? Were Pettenkofer and Virchow in a similar pickle?
36:36 Gerd Gigarenzer’s call for risk literacy
38:13 Professor Lauterbach’s new book
39:35 Outro