Finally. Finally, in their new corona rules, the federal and state governments have made a compulsory Covid vaccination for employees in clinics, nursing homes and similar sensitive facilities. You have corrected a cardinal mistake of the old government: categorically and at an early stage to exclude vaccination obligations without being able to know how the virus and society would behave. These professions were among the first to be offered the vaccination. If they still shirk now, nothing can be achieved with advertising and education, with appeals to special social responsibility.
With this compulsory vaccination, some of the severe courses and deaths are avoided. Because there is a disproportionately high number of people in homes and clinics who are particularly dependent on the protection of their surroundings – because their immune system does not work so well, so that vaccinations are less effective for them or their effectiveness diminishes more quickly. It is long overdue for them to be protected as best as possible by those to whom they confide in their helplessness.
We could inoculate ourselves out of the fourth wave if …
For a way out of the fourth wave, however, more vaccinations are needed – also in other parts of the population. Currently, the great demand for booster syringes offers an opportunity that should definitely be used. If the majority of those vaccinated are given the third dose quickly, the immune protection in the population can be massively increased. Israel, for example, has inoculated itself out of a huge wave with a 50 percent booster quota.
In order to achieve this in Germany, too, the course for a new vaccination campaign must be set very quickly: vaccination centers must be reopened wherever possible, mobile teams must be sent out, everyone must be involved in vaccinating who is able to do so, including specialist and clinicians, including pharmacists. Right now the pace is far, far too slow.
The rest of the federal-state resolutions, on the other hand, can hardly be assessed seriously. 3 G, 2 G, 2 G plus – that may sound like a well thought-out plan. But nobody knows what effect these regulations will have over what period of time. It also depends on the implementation. Surveys still show that a third of all German citizens in restaurants and other public places have never been asked for their vaccination certificate. It will not work like that. How the certificates in buses and trains should be checked regularly is a mystery anyway. And ultimately the problem remains that these rules do not apply in private, where the virus can spread easily.
There is now no need for a new, finely chiseled step-by-step plan
Anyone who hears practitioners in the clinics, practices and offices will quickly realize that what is urgently needed is not a new, finely chiseled step-by-step plan for all eventualities of the pandemic. Certainly not a plan that depends solely on the rate of hospitalizations, which is notoriously lagging behind the infection rate.
In view of the skyrocketing number of cases, quick action is necessary. You still need access to unpopular measures such as curfews, event and sports bans, and shop closings. The new resolutions have robbed themselves of these emergency brakes. Unfortunately, it looks like a new cardinal error has been committed.