‘NINETY PER CENT of Germany’s severe Covid-19 patients have migrant background and more than half are Muslim’ despite making up 4.8% of the population – with politicians ‘afraid to tackle the problem in case they look racist’

From the Daily Mail

More than 90 per cent of severely ill coronavirus patients in Germany have a ‘migrant background’, a leading doctor has said, prompting claims that the government is turning a blind eye to the issue to avoid igniting a race row. 

In a conference call of health experts, reported by Bild, Voshaar said he had raised the issue with Angela Merkel’s health minister Jens Spahn – while the head of Germany’s top diseases institute, Lothar Wieler, described it as a ‘taboo’.  “Es ist ein Tabu”

Wieler added that the number of Muslims in intensive care was ‘clearly above 50 per cent’ even though they make up only around five per cent of Germany’s 83million population. 

Voshaar told the February 14 conference call that government warnings about the dangers of the virus were ‘simply not getting through’ to migrant communities. ‘According to my analysis, more than 90 per cent of the intubated, most seriously ill patients always had a migrant background,’ he said.  ‘We agreed among ourselves that we should describe these people as ‘patients with communications barriers’. We don’t seem to be getting through to them.’  

Wieler, the RKI chief, called for authorities to engage with imams to get through to Muslim communities, calling the issue a ‘taboo’ and a ‘real problem’. ‘There are parallel societies in our country. You can only put that right with proper outreach work in the mosques, but we’re not getting through. And that sucks,’ he said. Wieler said the proportion of Muslims in intensive care wards was ‘clearly above 50 per cent’, even though they make up only around 4.8 per cent of the population. 

Experts on the conference call are said to have raised fears that the German government was avoiding confronting the issue for fear of triggering a racism debate.