Increasing Corona numbers, booster vaccinations that are too slow, an increasing hospitalization rate – the discussion about a Compulsory vaccination (for certain professions) to get the pandemic situation under control is in full swing!
Now the possible next Chancellor, Olaf Scholz (63, SPD), is open to a debate about compulsory vaccination. “I think it is right that we have now started a discussion about whether this should be done,” he said on Monday evening at the economic summit of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”.
Just to talk about it is a clear statement – according to Scholz, the SPD, Greens and FDP have deliberately opened this debate. He had ruled out a compulsory vaccination in the past week.
That’s what politics want
After Green parliamentary leader Katrin Göring-Eckhardt (55) on Monday had rushed forward with the newsthat the traffic light had already agreed on compulsory vaccinations for certain professions, they had to row back: an agreement has not yet been reached. But it must be discussed further.
SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil (43) has dampened expectations of a quick decision on partial compulsory vaccination. “The debate about compulsory vaccination is there, but it has not yet been decided,” he told RTL / ntv. “We will see in the next few weeks whether we can initiate compulsory vaccination or not,” adds Klingbeil. The compulsory vaccination for certain occupational groups is a difficult question to weigh up.
Health Minister Jens Spahn (41, CDU) considers mandatory vaccination to be unenforceable. “That would tear our country apart”, he told the “Spiegel” a few days ago. He was also skeptical about mandatory vaccinations for nurses. He “would be concerned that we could lose a lot of nursing staff with too much pressure,” said Spahn. However, he is in favor of testing the care workers on a daily basis.
Also President of the Bundestag Bärbel Bas (53, SPD) warned of compulsory vaccination: “You could certainly increase the vaccination rate with compulsory vaccination. On the other hand, you run the risk of dividing society further, ”Bas told the Funke Group’s newspapers.
The Greens boss sees it differently Robert Habeck (52): He called on the population to vaccinate and spoke out in favor of partial compulsory vaccination. “With all due respect for individual decisions, I urgently appeal to everyone to re-examine this decision and to make new considerations,” he told the Funke group. “I also consider compulsory vaccination for certain professional groups to be sensible.”
App users come here for the survey.
At BILD on TV, Bavaria’s Prime Minister Söder (54, CSU) spoke out on Tuesday in favor of mandatory vaccination for nurses and nurses: “Yes, we need mandatory vaccination for certain professional groups.” Nursing homes. Söder, on the other hand, excludes daycare educators, even for public servants such as police officers, there should be no compulsory vaccination.
Also the vice chairman of the FDP parliamentary group Michael Theurer (54) has shown itself to be open to compulsory vaccination for certain occupational groups. “The fact is: We have now agreed on extensive measures – the home office obligation, the 3G rule in buses and trains and also at work,” said Theurer on Tuesday in the ZDF “Morgenmagazin” with a view to the plans of the SPD, Greens and FDP to fight against Corona. “And personally, for example, I can certainly imagine compulsory vaccination for certain professional groups.”
That’s what the experts say
Last week, the Ethics Council recommended that vaccination should at least be checked for certain occupational groups. Because: “Employees who professionally care for the seriously or chronically ill as well as the elderly, such as medical and nursing staff, but also employees of social services, everyday support or housekeeping, have a special responsibility not to harm those entrusted to them,” explained the Ethics Council on Thursday.
▶ ︎ In a current statement on the legislative procedure in the Bundestag, lawyer Hinnerk Wißmann from the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster also recommended that vaccination be considered “before general lockdowns for schools or universities are considered”. He described this as a “milder remedy”.
In plain language: compulsory vaccination or lockdown.
And lawyers can now also imagine compulsory corona vaccination: Constitutional lawyer Christian Pestalozza considers the introduction to be inevitable under certain conditions. If the “small relief measures” to fight the pandemic are not enough, politicians are “even constitutionally obliged to take more stringent measures” such as mandatory vaccination, he told the editorial network in Germany. If an occupational group-specific vaccination requirement is not sufficient, a general vaccination requirement is also permissible.
In view of overburdened clinics, medical lawyer Josef Franz Lindner is also promoting a statutory corona vaccination requirement for nursing staff. “I wonder what you want to wait for in view of the current conditions in the intensive care units,” said the holder of the chair for public law, medical law and legal philosophy at the University of Augsburg. “The collapse is not far away if you believe the intensive care doctors. A vaccination requirement for nurses is not only legally possible, but also required. “
Compulsory vaccination not only for certain occupational groups: The President of the German Nursing Council, Christine Vogler, has meanwhile spoken out against compulsory corona vaccination only for nurses. Instead of targeting specific occupational groups, an “institution-related” approach must be taken, she said on Tuesday in the ZDF “Morgenmagazin”. Because not only caregivers but also relatives, cleaning staff and kitchen helpers would have contact with the vulnerable groups in clinics and nursing homes. Vaccination should then also apply to these, said Vogler: “Vaccination is a task for society as a whole that we have to fulfill.”
The Union for Education and Science (GEW) rejects compulsory vaccination for certain professional groups, as the union chairman Maike Finnern emphasized to the editorial network Germany.
The introduction of a corona vaccination requirement for members of the Bundeswehr has apparently failed so far due to internal resistance from the troops. Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (59, CDU) called for this step “already in the spring” and “emphatically”, said a ministry spokesman for the newspapers of the Funke media group. But to this day the necessary approval of internal “participation committees” is missing.
So far, only soldiers deployed abroad have had to be vaccinated against Covid-19. According to information from the Funke newspapers, the Territorial Tasks Command decided on Wednesday that in future only vaccinated soldiers should provide administrative assistance in health authorities, vaccination centers or hospitals.