The vaccination rate in Germany is too low; Experts worry because too many people without immunization could give the virus a further boost and the clinics could come back to their limits. So what to do
A proposal that has been around for a long time and now in one mirrors-Interview by the virologist Melanie Brinkmann and the behavioral economist Marcus Schreiber has come up again: If there is a shortage of intensive care beds with high incidences, then vaccinated patients should be preferred. It feels totally fair from the gut, after all, the opportunities to get vaccinated are really there now. If you haven’t had a syringe in your arm, it’s your own fault.
Hospitals should not be the places of final settlement with vaccine opponents
But it is not that simple, because the reasons for not vaccinating are complex, it is about the pull of disinformation, lack of drive and great fear; not always just about radical rejection.
And even if: Hospitals are not the final settlement point, doctors do not judge people, they do not favor or punish. They help, no matter who they are in front of them. If doctors made their decisions for or against life solely on the basis of personal values, this would not increase justice in the hospital, on the contrary.
So the decision as to which patient receives which treatment must be based on medical parameters and less on moral ones: What is the patient’s perspective? What previous illnesses does he have? Which therapy is most promising? But also: Is it still ethically justifiable, despite the low chances of survival, to use all the weapons of intensive care medicine for this person – of course also in consideration of the question of whether other patients could be neglected as a result.
Doctors find the answers in team discussions, in medical files, in laboratory results and CT scans, not in a person’s vaccination record. In view of the past corona waves, it is also unlikely that two patients with an identical course will fight for a treatment and only differ in their vaccination status. This makes it clear that this is a sham debate that ignores the reality in the clinics.