“We have to approach compulsory vaccination”
Karl Lauterbach (SPD), here at a session of the Bundestag
Source: dpa / Kay Nietfeld
Its popularity seems to be growing on the Internet: Under the hashtag #WirwollenKarl there are thousands of tweets with demands that Karl Lauterbach should become Federal Minister of Health. The SPD politician has meanwhile openly expressed himself in favor of a general vaccination requirement.
D.he debate about compulsory vaccination continues to gain momentum. One must start to think about it, demanded the SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach in the program “The Right Questions” of the TV station image. “I would definitely no longer rule that out and tend to say: This does not help us acutely, but we have to get closer to compulsory vaccination.”
Lauterbach argued: “Without compulsory vaccination we obviously won’t achieve the vaccination quota we need to make ends meet with the strength of the vaccines we have and the R value of the delta variant.” The R value indicates how many people an infected person infects on average – and thus how quickly a virus spreads.
The hashtag #WirwollenKarl became popular on the Internet and a Twitter “trend” at the same time. Thousands of users are calling for Karl Lauterbach to become Federal Minister of Health.
The deputy FDP parliamentary group leader Michael Theurer, however, said in the picture broadcast about a general vaccination requirement: “We consider them unconstitutional.” Theurer is reported in a cabinet list circulating in Berlin, reported on the WELT, as a candidate for the office of Federal Minister of Health in the planned traffic light coalition acted.
The deputy chairman of the Union parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Thorsten Frei, was also very skeptical. A general compulsory vaccination is likely “because of the serious interference with the right to physical integrity under the current framework conditions also disproportionate and thus unconstitutional,” he told WELT.
According to the professional association of paediatricians, the President of the German Child Protection Association, Heinz Hilgers, also spoke out in favor of compulsory vaccination for adults – if the vaccination rate does not increase significantly by spring. “Personally, I am in favor of advising about compulsory vaccination for adults and then deciding on it in the spring if the vaccination rate remains so low,” said Hilgers to the editorial network in Germany. “That would also protect the children.” Freedom requires responsibility. “And if this responsibility is not taken, then we need a compulsory vaccination.”
Daniel Günther (CDU) and Markus Söder (CSU) are also open to compulsory vaccination
Most recently, several Union representatives had shown themselves to be open to mandatory vaccination, including the Schleswig-Holstein Prime Minister Daniel Günther (CDU) and Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU).
The President of the Robert Koch Institute, Lothar Wieler, expressed himself deliberately. The compulsory vaccination is “a means, and I am completely with the (World Health Organization) WHO, which we all do not want,” he said on Sunday evening in the “Today Journal” of the ZDF. “It is really nobody who would like to have a mandatory vaccination. (…) But if you have tried everything else, the WHO says: Then you have to think about compulsory vaccination. “
The background to the debate is that experts believe that the vaccination rate in Germany is too low. Recently, however, the vaccination rate has increased again, and demand has increased especially for booster vaccinations. The infection situation has worsened dramatically in the past few weeks, the Robert Koch Institute again reported a record for the nationwide seven-day incidence.
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