Monday 15th November 2021
Buyx in the “ntv early start”
Ethics Council chief: “The situation is threatening”
The number of new infections is rising steeply. Politicians are thinking about new corona measures. “The situation is threatening,” says the Ethics Council chairman Buyx. However, she considers a lockdown for unvaccinated people to be unlikely.
Alena Buyx, Chairwoman of the German Ethics Council, is concerned about the current number of corona infections and considers nationwide 2G regulations to be justifiable. “The situation is threatening. It would have been nice if we had made further progress with 3G, but the hospitals are threatened with overload again,” said Buyx in “ntv early start”.
At some point the choice would be whether to restrict unvaccinated and vaccinated persons, or only unvaccinated persons, “and there is then a considerable difference in risk,” said the Chairwoman of the Ethics Council. “Unvaccinated people carry the virus more often and for longer. Above all, they have a higher probability of a severe course – you have to react.”
A lockdown for unvaccinated people, as in Austria, is nevertheless unlikely in Germany: “I hope we will not think about such measures. We have always had mild measures compared to other European countries.”
“It is very important that politics correct itself”
As an additional corona measure, the ethics council recommended compulsory vaccination for certain professional groups a few days ago. Buyx defends this demand: “In professions in which you work with people at high risk, there is a responsibility to expose people to unavoidable harm – and just testing the alternative does not seem to have worked.”
Buyx emphasizes, however, that the job-related vaccination requirement is only a small element in the fight against pandemics: “The vaccination requirement for certain professional groups will not break the fourth wave.” She points out that the duty would only be limited to certain activities. “We are not talking about a general compulsory vaccination.”
When asked whether politics would not lose credibility if, after a long period of negation, they would now introduce compulsory vaccinations, Buyx says: “I think it is very important that politics correct itself. And if you find that the situation is much worse than hoped, then one should correct oneself. “