Pros and cons: Compulsory vaccination: between solidarity and defiance

More freedom for vaccinated people? That’s right, thinks Jeanne Rubner, especially since rapid tests are unreliable. Less rights for the unvaccinated? That would go too far and would be counterproductive, says against it Anja Martini.

Pro: Not a threat, but a good prospect

I recently got a digital vaccination record and that feels good. Not only because the vaccination protects me from a severe course of Covid-19. But also because I hope to be able to live more freely. Go to a restaurant, the cinema or a concert. Simply that way.

It is correct that those who have been vaccinated and those who have recovered are given the prospect of freedom – provided that all adults have had the opportunity to pick up a syringe. Is that compulsory vaccination through the back door? Perhaps, but it is above all the solidarity with a society that has been doing without a lot for over a year and accepting massive restrictions in everyday life: employees who lose their jobs, young people who have had no lessons for months, parents who are under suffer from the multiple burden of work and homeschooling. Unvaccinated children. The vaccination helps them all.

It is therefore permissible to demand that a vaccination certificate must be presented wherever many people come together in a confined space. Rapid tests are too unreliable if the Fourth Wave may spill up in the fall. More freedom for vaccinated people is not a threat, but a good prospect.

Cons: fear of defiant reaction

Of course, it is right that as many people as possible get vaccinated. But therefore to restrict the rights of those who do not want to be vaccinated, for whatever reason, no, that goes too far.

That would be an obligation to vaccinate through the back door and thus also an encroachment on the right of self-determination of every individual – again through the back door. That is exactly what the government should avoid.

Applying pressure on unvaccinated people now would be like running out of arguments in a discussion on one side and saying: Basta! That’s the way it is now! Presumably there would be a defiant reaction from the other person. All undecided, skeptical and doubters would feel strengthened in their worries and fears.

Easily accessible vaccination offers such as mobile vaccination teams in front of the stadium, at the shopping center or in front of the club – together with good education – these are the right starting points to convince people to vaccinate and thus remind them of their solidarity and responsibility for society .