Friday 19th November 2021
Can only force help? Yes!
Compulsory vaccination is the order of the day
A comment by Christian Berger
A survey shows: People have understood better than politicians that it is no longer possible without compulsory vaccination. Austria is already on this path because the country has already reached an even worse point than Germany. We shouldn’t wait that long.
So now the vaccination requirement for nurses should come. That was one of the resolutions of the Prime Minister’s Conference with the executive federal government on Thursday. But that jumped far too short. We need a general compulsory vaccination when it comes to Corona, as 64 percent of Germans have now requested in the RTL / ntv trend barometer.
Political action cannot be made dependent solely on the swarm intelligence of the citizens. But the people have obviously understood more than the federal and state politicians that now only a compulsory vaccination helps. It is sad that she would be too late for the fourth wave to break. But it would help us through the fifth, sixth or whatever corona wave.
The intervention is less severe than the corona restrictions
It is already clear: we will have to live even longer with Covid-19. The virus does not go away. We can only achieve an intermittent overload of the health system, a permanent burden on the economy, but above all avoiding permanent restrictions for the young people of this country if everyone who is allowed to be vaccinated is also vaccinated. And that doesn’t happen voluntarily. A few days ago, Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn himself resignedly stated that a certain group of anti-vaccination campaigners cannot be reached through any awareness-raising campaign in the world. But all of society has to suffer from these small groups.
Our author Christian Berger believes that vaccination is urgently required, but of course there are also good arguments for an opposing position. In his comment, Thomas Leidel wrote down why he considers mandatory vaccination to be the completely wrong instrument. Read the counter-comment here.
Of course, compulsory vaccination is an encroachment on fundamental rights. But it is far less serious than the restrictions on fundamental rights that we are already talking about again. The medical lawyer Alexander Ehlers referred to this in the summer. The compulsory vaccination is compatible with the Basic Law, because it avoids harm to people and the state. If the state had to intervene in constitutionally protected rights, then it had to choose the mildest means. It is now compulsory to vaccinate!
The transformation into cows did not take place
The argument that it is not possible to enforce the compulsory vaccination does not work either. I can skip the TÜV appointment for my car. As a rule, however, it does not remain without consequences. There is also a historical example of the sense and enforcement of compulsory vaccination: the smallpox vaccination. In 1871, 180,000 people died in an epidemic in Germany. As a result, a compulsory vaccination was prescribed and enforced. In the 1970s, vaccination squads were still wandering through German elementary schools and no child was asked whether they wanted to be vaccinated against smallpox. In 1980 the WHO declared smallpox to be eradicated. Thousands upon thousands of human lives have been saved by this mandatory vaccination. Incidentally, there were also vague fears about vaccinations in the 19th century. People could turn into cows, was the big – and as we now know: unjustified – concern.
However, the idea of only vaccinating certain professional groups such as nursing staff is completely off the beaten track. Ironically, those who fight on the foremost corona front are forcibly vaccinated. While vaccination refusals and pandemic drivers are “spared” in the rest of the country. That is – also psychologically – the completely wrong signal. And if everyone has to be vaccinated, there is no need to worry that carers unwilling to vaccinate will quit their jobs. “All or not at all,” urges intensive care physician Uwe Janssens, with good reason.
Austria is now going this way and is relying on compulsory vaccination. Because the country has already reached an even worse point than Germany during the crisis. We must not wait for this to come to a head; we must act immediately. People have long been ready for this, only politicians are hesitant. To the detriment of the country.