Friday November 12th 2021
Greens for, FDP against
Traffic light divides compulsory vaccination for professional groups
The German Ethics Council recommends checking whether certain professional groups are required to be vaccinated. That is what the traffic light parties intend to do too. However, with very different goals: The Greens are counting on it, the Liberals are hoping for milder means. The SPD seems torn.
The traffic light parties SPD, Greens and FDP are also discussing a possible corona vaccination requirement for certain professional groups – but opinions differ. Probably one will have to introduce a job group specific vaccination in the coming weeks, said the Green health politician Janosch Dahmen. Anyone who is responsible for other people does not only have to make a decision about their own health in this important phase of the pandemic. He named nurses, doctors, cleaning and kitchen staff in clinics and care facilities.
“This is a topic or a discussion that we cannot avoid. We will also conduct it very openly in my parliamentary group,” said the health policy spokeswoman for the SPD parliamentary group, Sabine Dittmar. You have to weigh up very carefully, she added, referring to the dangers of a possible brain drain.
The FDP said that they would “naturally” face the discussion. “But it is also important for us whether we can achieve this with milder means,” said the health politician of the group, Christine Aschenberg-Dugnus, who also referred to the risk of a possible migration of nurses in the event of compulsory vaccination.
On Thursday, the German Ethics Council recommended that certain professional groups be checked for compulsory vaccinations. The expected future government partners, the SPD, FDP and Greens, will advise experts on measures to accelerate vaccinations and so-called booster vaccinations in Germany in the course of the day against the background of the sharp rise in corona numbers. Before the talks, Dittmar suggested that pharmacies could also take on booster vaccinations. She referred to corresponding model projects that had already been carried out for flu vaccinations.