Dispute over pressure and incentives: how do we deal with the unvaccinated?


Dispute over pressure and incentives
How do we deal with the unvaccinated?

On Tuesday, the Prime Ministers discussed with the Chancellor how Germany is reacting to the increasing number of infections. One thing is clear: Possible restrictions will target non-vaccinated people more than vaccinated people. But how much pressure is permissible and sensible?

In view of the increasing number of infections and a stagnating vaccination rate, politicians are discussing how to deal with people who do not want to be vaccinated on a permanent basis. During discussions on Tuesday between Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Prime Ministers of the federal states, important decisions could be made. Because the seven-day incidence in Germany continues to rise: According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) from Sunday morning, it was 22.6. At its most recent low just over a month ago, it was 4.9.

More than 45 million people are now fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. However, the vaccination rate is stagnating. According to a model calculation by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the vaccination campaign has already prevented an estimated thousands of deaths. Germany is currently at the beginning of a fourth wave. In order to keep their extent as low as possible, it is necessary to increase the proportion of the vaccinated population as quickly as possible. The focus of the political debate is the question of how more people can be induced to vaccinate – and whether there should be restrictions for those who are not vaccinated.

Berlin’s Governing Mayor Michael Müller believes that further steps to accelerate the vaccination rate are necessary. “In the Prime Minister’s Conference we need to discuss how we can motivate even more people to vaccinate in order to avoid an increase in the number of infections in autumn and winter,” said the chairman of the panel. “Vaccination is and will remain our most important tool in the fight against the pandemic.”

Latch for 3-G rule

How more people can be induced to get vaccinated, however, remains a matter of dispute. North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister and CDU boss Armin Laschet rejects discrimination against unvaccinated people if they can show a negative corona test. “The state must not exclude those who have been vaccinated, recovered or tested from participating in social life,” said the CDU / CSU candidate for chancellor of “Bild am Sonntag”. The so-called 3-G rule is “sensible, moderate and implementable”.

Union parliamentary group leader Ralph Brinkhaus told “Welt am Sonntag” that there was too much talk about the alleged indirect compulsory vaccination and too little about the rights of those who had been vaccinated. “But I assume that this will take care of itself in the fall, because hoteliers, clubs and event organizers will say: ‘Sorry, you just can’t get in to me with a test.’ I think the pressure from the vaccinated part of the population will increase enormously. ”

For Hamburg’s Mayor Peter Tschentscher there are two alternatives if increasing infections make restrictions necessary again: “A lockdown for everyone who I do not consider justifiable, or restrictions for those who do not have a vaccination, although this has been recommended for a long time.” In the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”, the SPD politician also called for unvaccinated people to be equated with those who had been vaccinated and those who had recovered only with a negative PCR test. “Rapid antigen tests are not reliable enough.” Bremen’s Mayor Andreas Bovenschulte told the “Handelsblatt”: “I think you can go further with conviction than with pressure”. He considers approaches to exclude non-vaccinated people from certain events or visits to be “not very effective”. So it is not possible to make a clear demarcation from the basic care of a person.

Municipalities fear the fourth wave

The President of the German Medical Association, Klaus Reinhardt, considers restrictions for unvaccinated people to be justifiable only in the event of an impending overload of the health system, as he told the editorial network Germany.

Greens boss Robert Habeck spoke out in the ZDF summer interview that corona tests remain free. With a view to a contrary proposal by the Federal Ministry of Health, he said: “This is the wrong measure to motivate people to vaccinate.” The ministry had proposed an end to the free rapid tests by mid-October. Only for people who cannot be vaccinated or for whom there is no general vaccination recommendation, such as pregnant women or under-18-year-olds, should there continue to be free tests. The federal government has been bearing the costs since March.

There is a lot of approval for demands that the seven-day incidence no longer be the sole benchmark for corona measures. The occupancy of hospital beds and intensive care units must also be decisive, said Laschet. CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt found in the “Bild am Sonntag”: “Incidence as the sole measure of all things has had its day.” Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig advertised a “Corona traffic light” in the newspaper.

The City Council called for a vaccination strategy for autumn and winter in order to be better prepared for a fourth corona wave. General Manager Helmut Dedy said: “We have a whole series of new vaccination tasks in front of our chests: booster vaccinations for the elderly and those in need of care, more vaccinations for children from 12 years and a lot more direct vaccination offers.” Cities need clarity beyond September, when most of the major vaccination centers close.

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