German Health Minister Jens Spahn wanted to distribute potentially faulty masks to the homeless and disabled after spending more than 1 billion euros on a large shipment from China last year, a report says.
The government bought the masks from Chinese firm Yi Cheng in the spring of 2020 when Europe was first hit by the pandemic. The EU regulator had warned that masks made by the firm had poor filter quality and banned them from the market.
However, German Health Minister Jens Spahn arranged for the matter to be cleared through technical security company TUV Nord, Der Spiegel magazine reported. The fast-track process agreed with German medical device regulator BfArM (Federal Institute for Medicines and Medical Devices) involved a minimum of checks, without required temperature tests and simulated use, the report said, citing internal sources, documents and government correspondence.
According to 'Der Spiegel', the 'unusable' masks were not allowed to be widely distributed due to insufficient testing, with 301 million of them remaining in stock by the end of April 2021. While discussing what to do with the stockpile of masks worthless, the Ministry of Health at one point reportedly suggested distributing masks to people on social assistance, people with disabilities and the homeless.
It was eventually decided to move the masks to the national stockpile, waiting until their expiration date of one to four years, the magazine said. According to the memorandum circulated by the Ministry of Labor and quoted by the newspaper, the distribution of masks will only be possible "in exceptional circumstances", provided that they are "reproved to be effective" and the Ministry of Labor signs off on their distribution.
Der Spiegel cited a Labor Ministry report showing the government had spent more than 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) on the masks.
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