Several thousand people demonstrated against the Corona rules in various cities on Saturday. In Hamburg a police spokeswoman said that around 5,000 so-called lateral thinkers and vaccination skeptics had gathered. The number of participants registered was 2000. The demonstration, which has now been taking place every Saturday for weeks, was peaceful, but there were difficulties with keeping a distance. In Berlin said the police of a number of participants in the “lower three-digit range”. An originally registered rally with 1,000 planned participants was banned on Friday. The demonstrators ignored the ban and marched through the Friedrichshain district. There were several arrests for violating the Corona rules and for resisting the officials. A journalist who filmed the protests on his cell phone was attacked by a participant.
In Frankfurt The police broke up two demonstrations after serious violations of the assembly requirements. The participants disregarded the distance rules and did not wear masks, the police reported on Twitter. Around 500 opponents of the Corona policy had gathered each time, plus counter-demonstrators. the end trier reported the police of a heated mood among the total of around 400 participants in a demonstration and a counter-event. It was thanks to the police’s “very specific” approach at times that there were no attacks.
Another focus of the protests was Thuringia. In Greiz alone, located in East Thuringia on the state border with Saxony, according to initial estimates, around 800 people came together on Saturday evening, said a spokesman for the state operations center in Erfurt. In Eisenach, the police reported according to initial estimates of around 300 participants, in the small town of Bad Liebenstein around 230 participants were counted. After Saxony, Thuringia is the state with the currently highest seven-day incidences nationwide. According to the Corona regulation, only 35 people are allowed to gather in one place outdoors. In Potsdam AfD boss Tino Chrupalla also took part in a demonstration by his party against the Corona measures. There were also protests in Hanover and Munich. (December 04, 2021)
Strobl warns of radicalization through compulsory vaccination
Thomas Strobl (CDU) warns of a radicalization of the corona protests because of the planned vaccination requirement. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution assumes that “compulsory vaccinations reinforce the aggressive stance of the lateral thinker movement,” said Strobl, who is also chairman of the conference of interior ministers, of the Funke media group. “The lateral thinking movement is dangerous for our free democracy, and it is becoming even more dangerous,” said Strobl. (04.12.2021)
NRW Minister of Justice for 2G in the workplace
The North Rhine-Westphalian Minister of Justice Peter Biesenbach (CDU) considers a general vaccination requirement and the expansion of the 2G rule to be necessary. Access to public life must be further restricted for those who have not been vaccinated. The vaccination gap can no longer be closed in any other way, he says Rheinische Post. “I am close to saying: In the absence of other, more effective options, the legislature is not only entitled, but obliged to introduce compulsory vaccinations.” Without a general vaccination requirement, a complete lockdown would be unconstitutional in the future. Biesenbach does not consider fines to enforce a general vaccination requirement to be sufficient. There must be consequences for the continued payment of wages and the employment relationship. The 2G rule would help to control the compulsory vaccination.
In North Rhine-Westphalia, compulsory vaccination for police officers is also being discussed. The state chairman of the police union (GdP) in North Rhine-Westphalia, Michael Mertens, can imagine that. “We will also have objectors in our ranks,” says Mertens of the “Rheinische Post” https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/. “If the interior minister were to make a vaccination compulsory for the police, then I could understand the argument well and we as GdP could imagine supporting that. ” Since the police are also used to review the 2G rules and “are a system-relevant professional group, we also have to accept mandatory vaccinations.” (04.12.2021)
53 percent of Germans for nationwide lockdown
In view of the high number of new corona infections, the majority of Germans consider a nationwide lockdown to be necessary in December. That comes from a representative survey of the opinion research institute “YouGov” on behalf of World on sunday emerged. While 53 percent of those questioned were in favor of contact restrictions for everyone and an extensive shutdown of public life, 38 percent were against such stricter measures. Eight percent did not want to commit. A clear majority of respondents are skeptical about the prospects of normalization. 58 percent said that Germany will not get the corona pandemic under control in the coming year. Only 28 percent are confident that this could succeed after all. (04.12.2021)
Seven-day incidence increases to 442.7
The seven-day incidence rose again slightly. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) gave the number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants and week on Saturday morning at 442.7. For comparison: the previous day the value was 442.1. The health authorities in Germany reported 64 510 new corona infections to the RKI within one day.
When evaluating the infection rate, it should be borne in mind that experts are currently assuming a noticeable underreporting. Health authorities and clinics can no longer keep up with reporting cases, at least in individual regions. The RKI is also finding it difficult to assess the situation. The slowed rise in the seven-day incidence could “on the one hand be a first indication of a slightly weakening dynamic in the transmission process due to the significantly intensified measures to reduce contact,” said the RKI weekly report on Thursday evening. However, the development could “regionally also be due to the increasingly overloaded capacities in the public health service and the exhausted laboratory capacities”. (04.12.2021)
Laschet has doubts about general vaccination requirements
CDU boss Armin Laschet has doubts about a general corona vaccination requirement. Laschet said Süddeutsche Zeitung: “We have been saying for 20 months with the conviction that there will be no compulsory vaccination – and suddenly I don’t hear anyone repeating such a sentence.” There is “no country in the whole of the European Union with general compulsory vaccination”. When asked whether he would vote in favor of compulsory vaccination in the Bundestag, Laschet replied: “Before the election, I promised that there would be no compulsory vaccination. That is why this decision has to be made carefully.”
The CDU chairman also complained about the shape of the debate. “It’s also about the sound,” said Laschet. “There is a culture of ostracism in this country: everyone who expresses themselves differently experiences shitstorms and allegations. Ex-Interior Minister Otto Schily had to experience this when he pointed out that there is no compulsory vaccination even in China.” Even if you have a clear opinion, “tolerance of democratic inferior opinion is part of the political culture, even in a pandemic, even in a crisis”. (04.12.2021)
Wieler: “We have no time to lose – not a single day”
The President of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Lothar Wieler, says it is too early to read a trend reversal from the currently stabilizing incidence figures. More than one percent of the entire population is currently infected, said Wieler at a joint press conference with the Executive Minister of Health Jens Spahn. In addition, the RKI assumes that there is considerable underreporting; twice to three times as many people could be infected as officially reported. So far, the new omicron variant has not yet been assessed. “Omikron could also infect people who have been vaccinated and recovered more easily,” continues Wieler. “We have no time to lose – not a single day. We need a high vaccination rate and a low incidence.”
Spahn also said: “Vaccinations and boosters are the best remedies against this pandemic.” As of Friday, 12.2 million of the 55 million vaccinated adults in Germany had already received a booster vaccination. There is enough vaccine to reach the vaccination target of 30 million vaccinations by the end of the year. It will probably be Spahn and Wieler’s last joint press conference. According to the plans of the future traffic light coalition, the new government should start work in the coming week. It is not yet clear who will take over the office of Minister of Health von Spahn. (December 3rd, 2021)
Baden-Württemberg prohibits major events and introduces compulsory testing for vaccinated people
Vaccinated and convalescent people also have to show a negative corona test on Saturday to visit a restaurant in Baden-Württemberg. The 2 G plus rule will apply to gastronomy in the future, and major events will also be prohibited. A “hard upper limit” of 750 people will apply in future to football games or cultural and leisure events. For events of any kind, only a maximum of 50 percent of possible visitors should be allowed in the future. The Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) had already announced a nationwide ban on large public events before the Prime Minister’s Conference on Thursday. (03.12.2021)
RKI calls for the economical use of PCR tests
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) recommends cautious use of PCR tests due to the tense situation in the corona laboratories. “In some regions laboratories are at the limits of their capacity utilization. This is why it is currently necessary to prioritize the use of PCR tests in accordance with the national test strategy,” writes the RKI in its weekly report. For example, PCR tests should be “critically examined under the aspect of the regionally available PCR capacities”.
PCR tests, which are necessary for the reliable detection of an infection, should, for example, only be used to a limited extent to shorten the quarantine and isolation times for contact persons and infected people. In these cases, “high quality rapid antigen tests” were sufficient. Experts fear that overloaded laboratories will not be able to report infections promptly and that this will distort the official statistics. (December 3rd, 2021)