Monday, April 26, 2021
Freedoms for the protected?
Spahn: Decide on vaccinated people on May 28th
Will vaccinated people soon benefit from the easing or will they still be subject to strict restrictions? This question will be finally decided at the end of May, as Health Minister Spahn has now announced. Opinions differ widely among the country leaders themselves.
According to Health Minister Jens Spahn, it will be decided at the end of May to what extent people vaccinated against the coronavirus will continue to be subject to restrictions. “The federal government will make a proposal for this next week and the Federal Council will then make a final decision on May 28,” said Spahn in an ARD “Extra”. So there is a clear timetable for how the rights of vaccinated people should be regulated. This concerns, for example, the question of whether exit restrictions should also apply to them.
Berlin’s Governing Mayor Michael Müller, as chairman of the Prime Minister’s Conference, and Chancellor Angela Merkel had previously declared after the deliberations of the heads of the federal and state governments that this was a socially sensitive issue. You have to be very sensitive about this, said Merkel. She pointed out that in a transition period, many people would not be able to get vaccinated. During the deliberations between the federal government and the federal states, the topic was discussed, but no resolutions were passed. The planned regulation must be approved by the Bundestag and Bundesrat, as Merkel explained.
Decisions were deliberately not made, even if Union Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet had urged that an agreement should be reached on equality between those who have been vaccinated and those who have recovered. It was agreed that there should be a gradual harmonization of the treatment of vaccinated, convalescent and negative testers. The Ministry of Health is working on a corresponding amendment to the entry regulations.
Tschentscher and Weil take a critical view of freedom
According to Merkel, it has not yet been clarified which vaccines will be recognized. Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer had previously demanded that the entry regulations should also be relaxed for people who were administered vaccines that are not yet approved in the EU – such as the Russian vaccine Sputnik V. The question is particularly important for the travel industry. The Chancellor indicated that one could be content with which vaccines are accepted by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Before Spahn, Saxony-Anhalt’s Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff had already named May 28 as the day of the decision. The CDU politician considers the return of certain freedoms for vaccinated people at the end of May / beginning of June to be realistic.
Hamburg’s mayor Peter Tschentscher, on the other hand, clearly warned against a careless lifting of the corona restrictions for vaccinated and convalescent people. There is an assessment that vaccinated and convalescent people pose “a very low risk”. “Not no risk at all,” emphasized the SPD politician. It must also be borne in mind that “the accumulation of residual risks”, for example through new virus variants, could again lead to a significant risk.
Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil also spoke out against a quick withdrawal of corona restrictions for those who were already vaccinated. “As long as we are not yet able to offer everyone a vaccination, we should avoid treating vaccinated and unvaccinated people differently as much as possible,” said the SPD politician on Monday evening after the federal and state vaccination summit.
Hans also wants relaxation for those who tested negative
The Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Malu Dreyer sees the need for freedom for vaccinated people, but demands to be careful: “The more people are vaccinated, the Basic Law also confronts us with the challenge of partially lifting individual freedom restrictions for vaccinated people and at the same time avoiding setbacks To risk fighting the pandemic, “said the SPD politician.
The Saarland Prime Minister Tobias Hans campaigned for the rights of people who tested negative after the vaccination summit. The federal plans to adjust the deep restrictions on fundamental rights for vaccinated citizens are the right way to go, said Hans. However, this should also apply to those who tested negatively for the duration of the validity of the test: “The extensive restrictions on fundamental rights must not become permanent.”
Hans went on to explain: “The planned federal ordinance essentially provides exactly what we are already practicing with our Saarland model: more freedom is possible for people who are demonstrably not at high risk of infection.”
The fundamental consideration in the key issues paper of the government is that if it is scientifically proven that certain people are no longer contagious or the residual risk of further transmission is low, “it should already be due to the suitability, in any case, to the necessity or in relation to these groups of people There is a lack of adequacy of many protective measures “.
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