Silvia Habekost works as a nurse in Berlin. She has no understanding for those who refuse to be vaccinated. However, in her opinion, the problem in the industry is not unvaccinated nurses, but a failure of the policy. The 59-year-old is active at Verdi and part of the Berlin hospital movement. Compulsory vaccination, as the federal states are now calling for, is not the solution in their eyes.
ntv.de: Do you know how many of your colleagues are vaccinated?
Silvia Habekost: We have a high quota. I work in anesthesia in the operating theater, i.e. in the airway area, through which the coronavirus is transmitted. Therefore, the risk of infection is very high. Some were actually infected, and some are now suffering from Long Covid, including young colleagues. So I have absolutely no understanding if you don’t get vaccinated. Even an employee in our area does not want to, there is no approach. That is respected, but I keep asking.
Are you angry that some caregivers do not want to be vaccinated?
I just do not understand. Because vaccinating is the way out of the pandemic, and we could already be out. Take a look at Sweden, for example, where a normal life is almost possible again due to the high vaccination rate. The consequences of illness are much worse than vaccination side effects! But this affects everyone, not just caregivers.
But is someone who does not want to be vaccinated even right in their job?
There is such a lack of appreciation for carers! At some point we will no longer have anyone to do the job. Paying so poorly in old people’s homes in particular, with such poor working conditions – and then there is also the moral club. There is little protest against this because we simply have no more energy for it. I am sure that every effort is made to protect home residents. The politicians should protect the old people! They haven’t known for a month that the vaccine was wearing off. But there was no plan for this, but an election campaign. In addition, the testing of visitors is also left to the employees; there should be test stations at the entrances of hospitals and homes.
So are you against compulsory vaccination for caregivers?
I have nothing against compulsory vaccination, which already applies to measles and hepatitis. But I don’t think it’s the solution – if anything, vaccination should be mandatory for everyone. Anyone who demands something from us now has to listen to us from time to time. Our work situation was already stressful before Corona. The clapping can be stuck anywhere else. We need higher pay and better working conditions. I can’t even increase my working hours in the pandemic, as happened. But instead of an improvement, they are crying out for compulsory vaccination. This also creates a defiance: Politicians don’t listen to us! She could have prepared us for a pandemic. Instead, a system was installed in which not people, but only profit count. And now the nurses should be vaccinated – for me that is a contradiction in terms. After the third wave at the latest, politicians could have ensured that we could take good care of our patients. She did not understand that and therefore drove even more carers out of the job.
That is the main argument against compulsory vaccination, that even more nurses then throw it away – how obvious is that?
Nurses leave the job because of poor working conditions, so patient safety is at risk. This was intensified again in the pandemic.
What are the reasons for colleagues not to be vaccinated?
I dont know. We also had breakthroughs in vaccination among our colleagues, but no more severe courses. In the meantime, a few have already received the booster vaccination, which is well organized with us and possible on site during working hours. Cleaning staff can also be vaccinated, for example. Many colleagues have children with whom you can’t keep your distance – they have to be particularly careful not to bring the virus to the ward.
What protective measures do you have in your home?
Patients who come to the rescue center are given a rapid test and a PCR test. When it is really urgent, we don’t wait for the result and treat them like they have the coronavirus. The vaccinated employees take a quick test once a week, the unvaccinated before each shift. We have also been tested to work with cold symptoms – if we stayed at home all the time, no one would be at work anymore. But we always wear FFP2 masks. It annoys me when others complain about an FFP2 requirement on public transport, we can take it all day.
How many patients come unvaccinated and how do you deal with them?
Many in our field are not even able to say whether they have been vaccinated. We also do not let the individual patient feel if they are sick because they have not been vaccinated – we treat everyone equally. But it makes me angry, you can’t expect understanding. Because it doesn’t have to be, it’s their own fault. The number of intensive care patients is increasing because many do not get vaccinated. There is no reason for it, but vaccination serves to protect the general public. This applies not only to employees in the health sector, but to everyone. I’ve also had the flu vaccinated for years, not because of me, but because of the patients.
How are you personally at the moment?
Personally quite good. At the moment we can still do almost the full surgical program because we don’t have as many Covid patients as we did last winter. At that time, some of our colleagues had to switch to the intensive care unit, it may be that time again soon. This also leads to an additional burden in our area. Because the intensive care capacities were scarce, we had to take care of patients in our recovery room who had also stayed there overnight. Therefore, the colleagues on standby had to work through some of the work.
What do your colleagues say about this?
The transfer to the intensive care unit was not really voluntary, not only because of the high level of stress. At that time there was still no vaccine, the colleagues were afraid of being infected. They also had to watch how many patients died. Those were really tough months that nobody wants to go back. But it could be that time again soon. Vaccination is the way out! It has to be made as easy as possible for people to get vaccinated wherever they go.
What action would you take if you could decide?
It shouldn’t have come to that. In Germany everything is always discussed widely, they should do what science recommends. Austria’s lockdown for unvaccinated people is correct. I hope that there are further restrictions for unvaccinated people in this country, preferably nationwide 2G plus. However, I am in favor of regional distinctions – why should the same restrictions apply in Schleswig-Holstein? The schools should remain open nationwide, however, the children should not suffer again like this. I don’t understand why the same rules didn’t apply in companies as in schools. The decisions were obviously influenced by lobbyists.
Christina Lohner spoke to Silvia Habekost