Former Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn is increasingly confronted with the consequences of his term in office during the Corona years - and not without reason. It is about huge sums, some of which have been spent senselessly, some of which have been completely oversized. But not only Spahn, but also his successor Karl Lauterbach would have to face critical questions. The fact remains: The German state spent huge amounts of taxpayers' money during the so-called pandemic – without anyone ever taking serious responsibility.

Although – in retrospect and with knowledge at the time – there was never a national health emergency that justified authoritarian interventions, massive measures were adopted. These were not only socially and economically drastic, but also a financial disaster.

By April 2023, the corona costs added up to around 440 billion euros. Of this, 63.5 billion euros were spent on vaccines, protective material and tests alone. Almost half of them, in turn, on mass testing, masks and hospital payments.

The state-funded testing strategy developed into a money-printing machine – not only for pharmaceutical companies, but also for resourceful fraudsters. PCR and citizen tests have been carried out millions of times, including on symptom-free people. According to the Taxpayer Institute, fraudulent billing in non-existent test centers alone caused damage of up to 2 billion euros. In some places, a snack sign and a Wi-Fi router were enough to pass as a test center – control? Nothing.

In December 2022, a case became known in the Cologne area in which a gang swindled over 20 million euros through fictitious test bills - in facilities that simply never existed. The Associations of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians had neither an obligation to audit nor an interest – after all, they benefited from the bills as a percentage.

The billing system was hair-raising: operators only had to report figures, receipts or controls were not provided. The Taxpayer Institute spoke of an "investigation at a snail's pace" and criticized the lack of data analyses by the RKI.

Creativity was also required in hospital operations: Initially, there were compensation payments for intensive care beds kept free, later for high occupancy. This led to some clinics artificially tightening capacities in order to get state funds. Millions flowed to facilities that strategically "optimized" their actual occupancy.

However, the largest sums were burned by politicians themselves - specifically Jens Spahn and later Karl Lauterbach. The federal government spent 6 billion euros on masks, much of which was never used or ended up directly in the trash. It was known early on that masks - as virologist Drosten himself said - offer hardly any protection.

Spahn justified the order of almost 6 billion masks with the principle "Having is better than needing". The price was fixed by the state: €4.50 per FFP2 mask, 60 cents per surgical mask. Two-thirds of the masks were never used, many were of inferior quality or expired. Result: They were destroyed – value: around 800 million euros.

The logistics were awarded to a company from Spahn's home region without a public tender. Supply contracts were partly concluded by email - similar to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who had initiated vaccine deals with Pfizer CEO Bourla.

Excessive prices alone caused additional damage of about 470 million euros. Later, suppliers sued for compensation – with a total sum of 2.3 billion euros in the room.

The vaccine procurement was no less absurd. Jens Spahn ordered over 556 million vaccine doses for more than 10 billion euros. A total of 672 million doses were ordered by 2023 - for 13.1 billion euros. Around 200 million of them remained unused and later had to be destroyed. The disposal caused further costs in the millions.

And although it was foreseeable that the pandemic would end, Karl Lauterbach still ordered another million doses in 2024 - with reference to possible booster vaccinations. Need? Hardly existing.

We criticised the fact that the Ministry of Health spent over 100 billion euros between 2020 and 2023 – a large part of which was inefficient, oversized or simply pointless.