Status: 13.09.2021 3:41 p.m.
A nationwide week of action is intended to get the stalled vaccination campaign going again. Health Minister Spahn emphasizes: Many unvaccinated people are not against it, but have just not had the opportunity so far.
Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn has called for the start of the nationwide week of action on corona vaccination. “Quite a lot” of those who have not yet been vaccinated are not against vaccination, said the CDU politician. For many it is about the “easy opportunity” to get vaccinated.
It’s about convincing more people before autumn and winter, Spahn told him WDR. “Now that the vaccination centers will also close at the end of September, we are switching more to mobile teams,” said the minister.
In the fight against the corona pandemic, the nationwide vaccination campaign launched today is intended to bring new progress. Every citizen can be vaccinated against Corona in numerous places without an appointment and free of charge.
Nationwide vaccination week to combat the corona pandemic started
Viktoria Kleber, RBB, Tagesschau 12:00 p.m., 13.9.2021
700 vaccination campaigns nationwide
In addition to the permanent vaccination options, for example in the vaccination centers, numerous temporary offers, for example in libraries or shopping centers, are intended to further increase the vaccination rate. There are 700 such vaccination offers nationwide, according to government spokesman Steffen Seibert.
According to Seibert, 62.2 percent of the total population are currently fully vaccinated, 66.5 percent have received a first vaccination. “Every further vaccination counts and will let us go safer into autumn and winter,” emphasized the government spokesman. The rate has only continued to rise slowly recently. According to experts, at least 75 percent are necessary to flatten the fourth wave, significantly more to prevent it.
The government is aiming for a quota of over 90 percent for over-60s and 75 percent for 12 to 59-year-olds, as Spahn said last week. Around five million vaccinations are required for this.
“Benefits outweigh side effects”
Federal Minister of Education Anja Karliczek pointed out that a high vaccination rate is particularly beneficial for children. “This week all those who have not yet had the vaccine should give themselves a jolt.” She wanted to “remind us that a high vaccination rate is now of special benefit to our children,” said the CDU politician.
There are currently no approved corona vaccines for children under twelve. Karliczek recommended the vaccination to young people from the age of twelve. She emphasized that the approved vaccines are effective and safe: “The benefits of a vaccination outweigh any possible side effects many times over.”
Berlin Health Senator Dilek Kalayci (SPD) wants to convince unvaccinated people “with a long night of vaccinations and with doner kebab vouchers”. Unfortunately, the vaccination rate is only progressing slowly, she told the broadcaster “RTL / ntv.” If you are honest, you have to say we didn’t make it. “Autumn is just around the corner,” we are in the fourth wave, and we have vaccination rates that are actually insufficient to avoid the worst “.
FDP criticizes vaccination week
Criticism came from the FDP. “The vaccination week of the federal government is the pitiful attempt to divert attention from one’s own failure,” said parliamentary group vice Michael Theurer of the “Handelsblatt” on Monday. Merkel and Spahn would have had months to implement a broad-based awareness and information campaign. Instead, the federal government’s vaccination week serves as a “flimsy pretext to introduce mandatory vaccination”, according to his allegation.
Health Minister Spahn rejected this criticism. It is your own decision whether to get vaccinated. But you also have to bear the consequences of the decision. So if, according to Spahn, an unvaccinated person has to be quarantined after a trip to a risk area – why should everyone else pay for it? Spahn described it as important that tensions between vaccinated and non-vaccinated people did not lead to a social division.
Martin Stürmer, virologist, at the beginning of the nationwide vaccination week
Morning magazine 6:30 a.m., 9/13/2021
Laschet again rejects mandatory vaccination
Union Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet also distanced himself from compulsory vaccination. “I still trust people’s insight,” he said in common Morning magazine from ARD and ZDF. He had the impression that some people were too careless when it came to vaccination and had not thought about it. “There aren’t that many people who really refuse to vaccinate.”
The vaccination week lasts until September 19th. But even after that, the actions are to be continued, as Chancellery Minister Helge Braun announced. “It doesn’t end with the vaccination week, it will continue in the next few weeks,” he said on ZDF.