Monday, November 8th, 2021
Corona talk with Anne Will
Montgomery: “Experiencing Tyranny of the Unvaccinated”
By Marko Schlichting
The fourth corona wave is here. The necessary third vaccination does not start. Nevertheless, Health Minister Spahn is still in favor of the end of the “epidemic situation”. And then? A topic that Anne Will discussed with her guests on her ARD talk show.
Suddenly everything has to happen very quickly. Because the current corona situation is becoming more and more dramatic. The Robert Koch Institute recorded 37,120 new infections nationwide on Friday. That is the highest value in the current fourth wave. The current incidence value nationwide is around 200. Mostly unvaccinated people are affected. But the number of vaccination breakthroughs is also increasing. According to world medical president Frank Ulrich Montgomery, only two per thousand of corona patients are currently being treated for this. But so that this number does not increase further, a booster vaccination is necessary, i.e. a booster vaccination. According to the Covid 19 vaccination dashboard, they have so far received a good 2.1 million people nationwide. On the other hand, the number of people who have not yet been vaccinated against Corona is unclear. Experts estimate around 30 percent of the population, and that’s too much.
Nevertheless, the Bundestag could discuss the end of the “epidemic situation of national scope” this Thursday. The SPD, Greens and FDP want to present a corresponding draft law on Monday, announced Green Party leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt in the ARD program Anne Will. She doesn’t say exactly what the traffic light parties want. However, it has now been leaked that, among other things, there should be compulsory testing for employees and visitors in nursing homes, even if they have recovered or have been vaccinated. That was what “Bild am Sonntag” wrote, citing negotiating circles. According to the report, there should be no lockdown for unvaccinated people and no nationwide 2G regulation for public life. In some federal states this is not going fast enough. Saxony has already introduced the 2G rule, Berlin is thinking about it, and Bavaria has also tightened the corona rules.
“Need legally secure protection”
The fact is: on November 25th, the epidemic emergency will cease to exist. Then the federal states will again determine which corona measures they consider to be correct. Two thirds of German citizens are vaccinated, Göring-Eckardt explains to Anne Will. Now one has to take measures “which are sufficient and helpful and which cannot be overturned by the courts.” “We need legally secure protection,” she emphasizes – and criticizes the executive federal government. You have had time since the summer to prepare for the current foreseeable situation. You have failed to prepare to vaccinate children. There are also problems with young people between the ages of 12 and 18, of whom not even half are vaccinated.
Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder understands that the government has hesitated too long. He demands from the traffic light parties to stand up for a conference of prime ministers, and seems to forget that this is actually the task of Chancellor Angela Merkel, even if she is only in office in an executive position. “We have to do more than just talk about distances and regulate the mask requirement,” he explains his request. And he fears: “The basic measures that are in the draft that has just been announced will not be sufficient.” Doctors treating in hospitals would soon be faced with the choice between unvaccinated corona patients and vaccinated stroke patients.
Everything has to be done to fight Corona differently than with vaccinations, says the Bavarian Prime Minister – and thus alludes to a possible drug against the disease. “It’s only really getting started now, the climax is far from being reached.”
“Tyranny of the Unvaccinated”
For Weltärzte CEO Frank Ulrich Montgomery, compulsory vaccination is a possible solution to the current situation. “We are experiencing a tyranny of the unvaccinated who rule over the vaccinated and impose all these measures on us,” he says. It is clear to him: “We all have to get vaccinated, then we will have enough security.” The German Nursing Council also demands that everyone be vaccinated. Its president Christine Vogler is against compulsory vaccination only for certain professions. Of course, she thinks of nurses above all else. In the hospitals 90 percent of the nursing staff are vaccinated, in the nursing homes you don’t know that, she says. In any case, only 50 percent of the nursing professionals are there. The others are helpers, care assistants and everyday companions. She wants to focus more on the facilities instead of the carers.
Markus Söder is against a general compulsory vaccination, but he can imagine compulsory vaccination for certain professions. On the other hand, he cannot understand vaccination skeptics and lateral thinkers: “It pains me that we are at a high scientific level, but when we are vaccinating we talk as if we are falling behind by a few centuries.” Söder demands that one has to do even more work to convince vaccination skeptics.
Address people directly
Christine Vogler and the President of the Ethics Council, Alena Buyx, know how this can be done: only by addressing them directly. You have to invite doubters directly to an appointment, demands Buyx. People should understand: “Vaccination in a pandemic is not a private matter. You have a higher risk of getting seriously ill – or dying.”
And Söder sums it up: “I just don’t understand the arguments that are being made against vaccination,” he says. “We could be through with anything, we could have so much freedom if we had vaccinated all or as many as possible.”