Monday, December 20, 2021
“Have the registration checked”
Lauterbach is considering a national vaccination register
Should the corona vaccination status of Germans be recorded centrally? For Health Minister Lauterbach, this mainly depends on the bureaucratic effort. Party friends are more skeptical. When deciding whether to have a vaccination, Lauterbach is pushing the pace.
Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach has checked whether the establishment of a national corona vaccination register for the central collection of vaccination data would be useful. “I’ll have it checked,” said the SPD politician in the “Bild” show “The Right Questions”.
If the examination reveals that the register is going to be a “giant bureaucracy monster” because it is very difficult to record the vaccinations of citizens retrospectively, then he will “probably be against it”. Turns out the vaccination registry doesn’t bother too much, “then I’ll be for it”.
The subject of the vaccination register is about considerations of centrally recording people’s corona vaccination status. This has come into the discussion against the background of the question of how a possible general corona vaccination obligation could be controlled. For him, the priority now is to speed up the vaccination, said Lauterbach. “One thing I want to prevent is that we keep the doctors from vaccinating with more bureaucracy and documentation.”
Decision on compulsory vaccination “as soon as possible”
The possible introduction of a vaccination register is also controversial within Lauterbach’s party. Chancellor Olaf Scholz was skeptical, Secretary General Kevin Kühnert rejected a centralized collection of vaccination data. In contrast, Bundestag President Bärbel Bas had called for a national vaccination register.
On the subject of general vaccination requirements, Lauterbach urges the Bundestag to make a decision as quickly as possible. Lauterbach said in the “Bild” talk that this had to take place “as soon as possible”. “I advise us to go this way so that we do not have to fear future heavy waves,” said Lauterbach – even if the compulsory vaccination could not make a significant contribution to breaking the omicron wave. Even if the vaccination were compulsory in January, which he does not believe, it would be months before the unvaccinated could be given the second vaccination. But: “I do not assume that Omikron is the last variant.”