Advice for everyone
Draft law for compulsory vaccination from 50 is ready
02/16/2022, 5:40 p.m
Four draft laws on the subject are now available in the Bundestag: one that rejects compulsory vaccination and three others, some of which differ greatly. The application for compulsory vaccination from the age of 50 provides for high hurdles.
There is a third draft law in the debate about introducing compulsory corona vaccination. A group of members of the Bundestag around the FDP health expert Andrew Ullmann presented their concept of compulsory vaccination from the age of 50, which also provides for high hurdles.
First of all, all adults should receive an invitation to a compulsory vaccination consultation. According to this proposal, the Bundestag would not decide to vaccinate people over 50 until mid-September.
In order to implement the obligation to provide advice, all people over the age of 18 living in Germany should be contacted and informed by their health insurance companies about advice and vaccination options. By September 15, they should either have proof of vaccination or recovery or proof that they have received medical vaccination advice. Anyone who has already been vaccinated should therefore not seek advice.
“Reasonable and appropriate”
From September 15, the Bundestag should then be able to introduce compulsory vaccination by resolution, based on a statement from the federal government. This should contain scientific findings, in particular about the existing vaccination rates and virus variants.
Ullmann recommended the draft as “reasonable and appropriate”. After the experiences of the last two pandemic winters, it is clear “that we have to prepare better”. The FDP domestic politician Konstantin Kuhle, who belongs to the support group of the draft law, said that whether vaccination is really needed from the age of 50 cannot yet be seriously assessed.
The Green MP Paula Piechotta, another supporter of the application, spoke of a “middle ground”. When it comes to compulsory vaccination, you have to proceed “very well dosed and with a good sense of proportion”. Other supporters include the Green MP Kordula Schulze-Asche and the two SPD MPs Franziska Mascheck and Herbert Wollmann.
Kubicki application is also available
Ullmann defended the late submission of the application, because of which the first discussion of the various drafts for compulsory vaccination in the Bundestag plenum in the current week was no longer possible. The Federal Ministry of Health, which had done the legwork for the various applications, only submitted the last version of its application on Tuesday, said Ullmann.
The draft is to be discussed together with the competing applications in the Bundestag session week from March 14th. A decision should be made by Easter at the latest, as Greens Parliamentary Secretary Irene Mihalic said in Berlin.
Members of various parliamentary groups around the FDP politician Wolfgang Kubicki have now submitted their application against general vaccination. According to the application, the obligation to vaccinate depends on questions that have not yet been finally clarified regarding the duration of protection and the scope of protection of a vaccination in the respective age groups.
Union does not want to join any of the other applications
Another proposal by MPs from the traffic light groups provides for the introduction of general vaccination requirements from the age of 18. The Union, in turn, has submitted an application that, similar to the Ullmann paper, provides for the activation of compulsory vaccination by a separate decision. So far it is unclear how a majority is to be organized for one of the motions. The Union will not join any of the group applications, said the CDU right-wing politician Jan-Marco Luczak ntv.de.
“The federal government is responsible for presenting its own draft law.” The fact that the traffic light does not have its own majority on this central issue is “a blatant leadership failure on the part of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, that must be made clear,” said Luczak. If the traffic light is ready to accept parts of the Union’s application, one can talk about forming a new initiative.
The draft for compulsory vaccination from 18 is supported by the majority of the SPD parliamentary group, as their parliamentary secretary Katja Mast said. This serves to get through autumn and winter better and without restrictions.