Controversy over compulsory vaccination: calls for better coordination

The debate about the implementation of facility-related vaccination requirements continues. Constitutional lawyers criticize the Bavarian detour as unconstitutional. Patient advocates are calling for a new law.

In the dispute over the obligation to vaccinate, the federal government’s nursing officer calls for better coordination between the federal and state governments. “It must not happen again such a disaster that one of the federal states gives up,” said Claudia Moll to the newspapers of the Funke media group.

She expects more reliability from the federal states, added the SPD politician: “The federal states have jointly decided in the Bundesrat that vaccinations are compulsory for the facility, as does Bavaria. Everyone must be able to rely on that.”

It is clear, Moll goes on to say, that the implementation of the facility-related compulsory vaccination will not be easy. She personally would have preferred to introduce compulsory vaccination from the outset. “But things turned out differently. You have to deal with that in a democracy.” She does not expect other countries to follow the Bavarian model. By the start date of March 15, however, it must now be clarified “how the countries can implement the vaccination requirement in everyday life”.

Constitutional Lawyer: Bavarian Departure “Unconstitutional”

In the meantime, constitutional lawyers in the “Welt” criticized the planned suspension of the facility-related compulsory vaccination in Bavaria. After Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) announced that he would create “the most generous transitional regulations” that would “de facto initially result in a suspension of enforcement”, constitutional lawyer Joachim Wieland from Speyer said:

However, the law on partial vaccination leaves the federal states scope for implementation when it comes to sanctions, added constitutional lawyer Christoph Degenhart. It is “probably still within limits” if a federal state should instruct its health authorities not to issue any bans on employment or entry. However, it is “constitutionally problematic” when a country so clearly contravenes the intention of a federal law.

Lauterbach is sharply critical

Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) had rated attempts from the Union not to implement compulsory vaccination in the healthcare system as a “very dangerous signal”. If a prime minister like Markus Söder (CSU) does not want to implement existing laws, it will massively damage the credibility of politics. The critics of compulsory vaccination gave the impression that the protests against it were taken more seriously than the health of vulnerable population groups.

At the same time, the minister admitted that the federal government had no way of enforcing the implementation of the law. That’s a country thing. CDU leader Friedrich Merz had previously called for the partial vaccination requirement to be suspended. He accused the federal government of leaving institutions and employees alone with the consequences. The CDU agreed to the regulation, but on the assumption that the problems could be solved.

Patient advocates are calling for a new law on partial vaccination

The German Foundation for Patient Protection is meanwhile demanding rapid corrections to the facility-related compulsory vaccination and a new law. “It is not a contradiction to be a vaccination advocate and to reject the facility-related vaccination requirement,” said Eugen Brysch, board member of the foundation, of the “Rheinische Post”: “The skepticism about the legal regulation has been fully confirmed.”

The loss of tens of thousands of nursing staff, the administrative problems on site and the hurdles of labor law were foreseeable, added Brysch. Even though vaccines offer the best protection against disease and death, they do not provide sterile immunity:

If Bavaria and the presidium and executive board of the CDU now want to end the chaos, the CDU/CSU parliamentary group and union-led countries are called upon to do so, Brysch continued: “Legal certainty will only bring a new law. Otherwise, a patchwork of different regulations cannot be prevented.” Otherwise, hundreds of thousands of people in need would face acute shortages.

Like the Prime Minister of Saarland, Hans, Brysch also sees a connection to the debate about a general obligation to vaccinate: “After these experiences, we should warn against a general obligation to vaccinate, the implementation of which is even more difficult,” said the patient advocate.