Karl Lauterbach urges Russia to cooperate openly with WHO

Karl Lauterbach, a Bundestag member and Germany’s health minister in 2021–2025, urged Russia to cooperate openly with international health institutions, particularly the WHO (World Health Organization). ZDFheute (Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen, Germany’s public broadcaster) relayed his remarks to Rheinische Post on 8 October, citing AFP (Agence France-Presse, the French news agency).

According to that report, Lauterbach regards transparency and prompt action as essential to preventing epidemics. He also said there was currently no heightened risk for people in Europe. This is an assessment by a politician and specialist, not a published result of patient examinations in Irkutsk or a German government decision.

BR24 (Bayerischer Rundfunk, Bavaria’s public broadcaster) also relayed the remarks, citing the same interview and material from AFP and dpa (Deutsche Presse-Agentur, the German news agency). This is dissemination of one interview. The original Rheinische Post page is blocked by robots.txt in the search tool and has not been read; the interview time is unknown.

BILD subsequently published a separate Lauterbach comment about contagion and early treatment of possible plague. These are different publications; whether the conversations took place on the same day is unestablished. The ZDFheute item found on 9 October is dated 8 October and describes no new illness.

ZDFheute: 8 October at 04:04:05 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), 12:04:05 in Irkutsk; publication and modification metadata match. BR24: first published at 05:24:04 UTC, modified at 06:10:10 UTC; 13:24:04 and 14:10:10 in Irkutsk. Interview date and time unestablished. Added to this research on 9 October.