Debate about truant vaccination: Federal government rejects penalties

The federal government has rejected the demands for fines for truant vaccinations. One wants to “motivate, not deter”. But the proposal to end restrictions for vaccinated people is also met with skepticism.

Possible penalties for skipped vaccination appointments have been discussed since the weekend – now the federal government has rejected such demands. The grand coalition has no plans for fines, said government spokesman Steffen Seibert. The Federal Ministry of Health also turned against it. “We want to motivate and not deter,” said a ministry spokeswoman.

At the same time, Seibert appealed to cancel a vaccination appointment if one could not or did not want to keep it or had a vaccination appointment elsewhere. The cancellation allows others to get an appointment and makes planning easier for staff in vaccination centers and practices, said Seibert.

FDP: “A punishment is wrong”

At the weekend, Bavaria’s Minister of Health Klaus Holetschek (CSU), SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach and the President of the Berlin German Red Cross, Mario Czaja, spoke out in favor of fines for so-called truants.

A spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of Health said there was no evidence that missing vaccination appointments without cancellation is a massive phenomenon.

The parliamentary manager of the FDP parliamentary group, Marco Buschmann, spoke out against possible fines for people who do not attend a vaccination appointment. “A punishment is the wrong thing. It is a medical intervention. We need the consent of the people,” said Buschmann in the ARD morning magazine. “And if I now expose people to a risk of punishment when they register, then I might make sure that fewer people register. And that is the opposite of what we want. We need as many vaccinated people as possible.”

End of restrictions important for “vaccination morale”

However, the federal government was also cautious about demands to lift all restrictions on vaccinated people as an incentive for immunization. This is possible at the earliest when everyone in the population has received a vaccination offer. This is currently not the case.

The chairman of the board of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, Andreas Gassen, had called for the end of all corona measures for completely vaccinated people in the “Bild”. “By September at the latest, a vaccination offer will be available for everyone who wants to be vaccinated, then almost all corona measures will have to go,” he said. “Everyone can then still decide individually whether he or she wants to continue wearing a mask – but then it should no longer be an obligation.”

The elimination of the measures is important in order to keep the vaccination morale high. “Otherwise, some people will ask themselves: Why should I get vaccinated, maybe accept two days of headache or other side effects of the vaccination and do something for the herd immunity if I still have to wear a mask just because 20 to 30 percent of people refuse.”

Doubts about herd immunity until September

The President of the German Society for Immunology, Christine Falk, criticized Gassen’s proposal as premature – and spoke out clearly in favor of maintaining the mask requirement. “We know that the masks protect against being infected by aerosols,” said Falk im SWR.

The example of Australia has shown how dangerous it is to leave off the mask. An airline crew infected with the corona virus triggered a lockdown in Sydney. “That is why I would strongly advise against abolishing the mask requirement now. We are still far too far away from a situation in which the virus can no longer spread.”

Falk doubted the argument that herd immunity could be achieved by September. “Even if we get over 70 percent by then, 30 percent would still not be vaccinated. We leave these people at high risk of being infected.” They consider that to be irresponsible. Falk therefore appealed to urgently accept the vaccination offers and not to rely on the collective protection of herd immunity from the coronavirus.

According to the Robert Koch Institute, up to and including Sunday, almost 39 percent of the German population had been fully vaccinated against the corona virus. 56.5 percent received at least one vaccine dose.