PSPH/IBE Interviews New Health Minister Lauterbach

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.