Corona measures: “Freedom Day” instead of “German fear”?

How should the corona restrictions continue? Health insurance chief Gassen calls for all measures to be lifted at the end of October. Other experts, however, warn of a difficult situation in autumn. Reason: the vaccination quota, which can still be expanded.

The vaccination campaign in Germany continues to be comparatively slow. Nevertheless, the head of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV), Andreas Gassen, is calling for all corona restrictions to be lifted by October 30th.

“After the experience from Great Britain we should also have the courage to do what has worked on the island,” he told the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”. “So we now need a clear statement from politicians: In six weeks it will be Freedom Day for us too! On October 30th, all restrictions will be lifted!”

“Risk groups largely vaccinated”

Gassen emphasized that the date would give anyone who wanted enough time to get vaccinated. “My bet: Then by the end of October we will have a vaccination quota of 70 percent or even higher, because a lot of people will soon accept the offer.” This would probably be sufficient, since the risk groups are already largely vaccinated.

For those who would still not be vaccinated, there is always a residual risk of ending up in the intensive care unit, for example because previous illnesses were not discovered that lead to severe courses in a corona infection. “But it is not the job of the state to protect everyone from it when enough vaccine has long been available.”

Gassen laments “German fear”

The cashier’s chief complained that the corona policy had been following the line of “caution, caution, caution” for a year and a half. There is a “German fear”, and one has “probably been left with an illusion of control for far too long. That is why the change of course is all the more difficult for some”. Without the announcement of a “day of freedom”, Germany would drag its way through the pandemic indefinitely.

In Great Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson had largely ended the containment of the pandemic in mid-July. “The health system there has not collapsed,” said Gassen. That must be encouraging, especially since the German health system is much more efficient and can treat more seriously ill people. In the UK, more infections were knowingly allowed. That was definitely “brisk”, but the current situation in England shows that the proponents of “Freedom Day” are right.

Lauterbach does not want to “exclude any means”

SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach, on the other hand, fears a “difficult autumn” if the vaccination campaign does not progress better. “What we are currently seeing is, in my opinion, a breather, not much more,” he told the “Passauer Neue Presse” with a view to the recently slightly declining corona infection numbers. “I assume that the number of cases will rise again at the moment when people’s lives increasingly take place indoors.” Germany needs a “much higher vaccination quota” in order to return to normal in the foreseeable future.

The doctor called on restaurants and clubs to only admit those who have been vaccinated and those who have recovered. In general, “no means” should be excluded to induce more people to vaccinate. “This also applies to the payment of so-called vaccination premiums, which I have always been very skeptical about so far.”

GEW warns of further daycare and school closings

The chairwoman of the Education and Science Union (GEW), Maike Finnern, is also worried about the autumn. “Entire classes are already in quarantine,” she told Business Insider magazine. Politicians must do everything to ensure “that we don’t get a winter like last year”. At the moment, the measures for schools are “made too hesitant”.

Instead of discussing prevention, the health ministers of the federal states limited the quarantine in daycare centers and schools to a few people, criticized the GEW boss. What is needed is a mix of measures consisting of comprehensive PCR tests, air filters in schools and more staff. Otherwise, one could not hold on to face-to-face teaching, as promised by the health ministers, said Finnern.

Spahn wants a higher vaccination rate in the southeast

According to the Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn, 62.9 percent of citizens in Germany (52.3 million people) received a full vaccination, 67.1 percent (55.8 million) received at least one vaccination. Spahn pointed out the differences in the progress of corona vaccinations between the federal states. “In the north-west we are almost there, in the south-east we should achieve significantly higher quotas,” wrote the CDU politician on Twitter.

According to the Robert Koch Institute, 77.7 percent of Bremen’s citizens were vaccinated once and 73.3 percent fully. In Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg and North Rhine-Westphalia, too, more than 70 percent of the residents received at least one corona vaccination.

In the south and east of Germany, the vaccination rates are mostly still significantly lower. In Saxony, for example, so far only 56.9 percent have received a first and 53.6 percent a second vaccination. In Thuringia, the rate is still below 60 percent, in Bavaria (63.8 percent first vaccinations) and Baden-Württemberg (64.3 percent) just above it.