The cantonal authorities are not feeling well. The reason for the unease is the big federal vaccination offensive. With it, as many people as possible should be moved to the spades. In some cantons with low vaccination rates, there are widespread concerns. They fear bitter resistance from vaccination opponents, protests and attacks on vaccination buses or advisors. “They’ll break our windows,” says a canton representative.
The cantons raised their concerns on Wednesday at a workshop with the federal government. Several event participants confirm this. But nobody wants to express themselves in public. “We are required to be very cautious about the event on Wednesday,” explains one participant.
The mood is heated
The worries are not out of thin air. In Diessenhofen TG, for example, radical opponents of vaccination assaulted an employee of the Thurgau vaccination bus. In Amriswil TG they tried to keep people willing to vaccinate from the peak. And these are not isolated cases. Time and again, employees and those willing to be vaccinated see themselves harassed and threatened.
Chur wanted to send a vaccination team to different schools. The action had to be called off. The Graubünden capital had received far too many threats. Authorities in Basel experienced something similar. There were also threats about school vaccinations.
In the meantime, vaccination campaigns often take place in buildings. In this way, demonstrators and any troublemakers can be kept at a distance. Security personnel are also occasionally deployed.
Special effort where the resistance is greatest
The mood in the country is heated. Nevertheless, the federal government and the cantons want to step on the gas with the vaccination offensive, which costs up to CHF 100 million, in order to increase the vaccination rate across Switzerland. Health Minister Alain Berset (49) has an eye above all on those cantons with a particularly low vaccination rate such as Obwalden, the two Appenzell and Schwyz.
The rising number of cases shows that the coronavirus strikes particularly hard where few people are pecked. Therefore, the vaccination effort should be strong, especially in those cantons. But there, of all places, the resistance is particularly strong.
“We fear that we will make many people hateful rather than inciting them to vaccinate,” chats a canton representative from the sewing box. Officially, nobody wants to talk. Fuel should not be poured into the fire unnecessarily. However, security measures hardly seem to have been planned for the vaccination offensive so far. Rather, concepts are adapted so as not to offend anyone.
Concepts with the handbrake on
But not all cantons fear trouble. “You know each other and you know how to deal with each other,” is the motto from a rural, smaller canton. At the same time, however, the authorities impose restraint on themselves: “You don’t have to go ahead with huge state propaganda.” This would certainly not organize any public lectures with corona experts. Because vaccine skeptics felt unnecessarily provoked by such. Vaccination advice is also possible on a smaller scale – and probably more productive.
Elsewhere, however, the authorities seem to be resigned. «Just practice! We did everything we could, ”said Markus Schmidli, a doctor in the Innerrhoden canton, recently quoted in the SonntagsBlick. Anyone who wanted to be vaccinated has long since done so. “The others don’t want to.”
The cantons nevertheless assure that the will to launch a vaccination offensive is there – but less so than the belief in success. Schmidli: “The Federal Council can dream, it’s no use. The people are informed, they just don’t want any more. “
The vaccination offensive threatens to stall before it has even started.