Status: 11/06/2021 11:08 am
The Marburger Bund has spoken out in favor of job-related vaccination requirements. It should apply to people who work in medical facilities, old people’s and nursing homes, schools and day-care centers.
At its general meeting, the Marburger Bund doctors’ association spoke out in favor of job-related vaccination requirements in Germany. The obligation to vaccinate against the coronavirus should therefore apply to people who work in medical facilities, old people’s and nursing homes as well as schools and day-care centers.
According to the association, medical representatives have expressed concern that, without a job-related vaccination obligation, many particularly vulnerable groups of people could be at considerable risk – among other things, with regard to increasing numbers of infections, especially among children, increasing vaccination breakthroughs and, in some cases, too low vaccination rates among employees. The introduction of a compulsory vaccination should be based on the existing measles vaccination.
“Obligation of the staff to protect the cared for”
It is difficult to enforce this mandatory vaccination, according to the chairwoman of the Marburger Bund, Susannne Johna, in BR. “On the other hand, we have a measles vaccination obligation for this staff, for example, which we do not want to pursue for every single person. Instead, we say: It is an obligation of the staff, the patients, the cared for to protect.” This also includes being vaccinated against Covid-19. Employers would have to check that.
Ethics Councilor for Compulsory Vaccination for Nursing Staff
Previously, Ethics Council member Wolfram Henn had already called for nationwide vaccination for nursing staff. “It is completely unacceptable and unprofessional if people who work with vulnerable groups every day are not vaccinated,” he told the “Rheinische Post”. Even compulsory testing, as decided by the federal and state health ministers on Friday, does not replace the compulsory vaccination, but can only supplement it.
The human geneticist rejected warnings that compulsory vaccination would put further pressure on the nursing staff and that workers in the industry could turn their backs. “A threatening backdrop is being set up here that we know does not apply. In France and Italy, for example, there is already compulsory vaccination for care workers, and the health system there has not collapsed either.”
Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) wants the German Ethics Council to deal with this issue again. He would ask the committee to deal with this question “fundamentally,” said Söder to the newspapers of the Funke media group.
Legal scholar: Compulsory vaccination is overdue
The legal scholar Christian Pestalozza described a general vaccination requirement as overdue. The constitutional lawyer, who is a member of the Ethics Commission of the State of Berlin, sees all fundamental rights requirements met, as he told the editorial network Germany: “The measure pursues a legitimate goal, is suitable, necessary and reasonable.”
Pestalozza pleaded for a nationwide legal regulation in the Infection Protection Act, in order not to bring individual countries “into difficulty in making decisions”. “Who is subject to vaccination must also be clear on the basis of the Infection Protection Act,” he said. The new Bundestag is called for here. The fact that a corona vaccination does not fully protect against infection is no reason for legal concerns, said Pestalozza. He has no doubt that courts like the Federal Constitutional Court also see it that way in the case of possible lawsuits.