Thursday, January 06, 2022
Lauterbach on measures
“Will probably have to increase”
Omikron is much more contagious than other Corona variants, but could be associated with slightly easier courses. Federal Health Minister Lauterbach still sees no reason to give the all-clear and is planning further contact restrictions. The highly infectious variant also gives new food to the debate about compulsory vaccination.
Before the federal and state governments discuss the corona situation, the call for further contact restrictions is getting louder in view of the rapidly expanding Omikron variant. “We will probably have to increase again,” said Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach in the ZDF “heute journal”. The Prime Minister’s Conference on Friday will again consult with Chancellor Olaf Scholz about how to deal with the pandemic. From the perspective of the federal government, the Omikron variant should be dominant throughout Germany in just a few days. Lauterbach and the heads of department of the federal states each submitted proposals for future quarantine requirements on Wednesday – with shorter time outs for staff in important supply areas, linked to PCR tests. Lauterbach emphasized in the evening on ZDF that such areas would be kept viable.
The minister warned against downplaying the dangers of Omikron because of the reports of lighter courses. Omikron will cause permanent damage to many. “You can’t take that lightly. Many people will get seriously ill here,” warned Lauterbach. He believes that more extensive contact restrictions are necessary, said the minister, without giving details. The best protection against Omikron is the booster vaccinations. Lauterbach called for the high vaccination rate to be resumed as before Christmas. A good 40 percent of the population have now received a booster vaccination.
The German Association of Towns and Municipalities calls on the federal and state governments to make preparations for a further booster vaccination if an adapted vaccine is available. It must also be decided whether a prioritization of the next vaccinations for particularly vulnerable people, the elderly and staff in the critical infrastructure should take place, said chief executive Gerd Landsberg the editorial network Germany (RND). At the same time, he emphasized that reducing the number of contacts was the only way to limit the incidence of infection.
Greens parliamentary group leader Haßelmann relies on a reduction in contacts in the workplace. “We are in a difficult phase of the pandemic,” said Haßelmann to the newspapers of the Funke media group. Additional protective measures are required. “This applies to further contact restrictions, not only in private, but also at work,” said Haßelmann. “Home office is a central component here. It must now be used more widely again.”
FDP expects an impact on the compulsory vaccination debate
The Omikron variant also rekindles the debate about compulsory vaccination. The Baden-Württemberg FDP state chief Michael Theurer told the German press agency: “The longer the discussion continues, the more it turns out that the compulsory vaccination is not a panacea.” It is a deceptive hope that mandatory vaccination as a panacea will lead to an end to the pandemic. The Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Transport stated, for example, that vaccinated people could still be contagious, that there were new mutations and that people with previous illnesses could not be vaccinated.
FDP Vice Johannes Vogel expects the spread of Omikron to influence the debate about mandatory vaccinations. “Perhaps this will make the question of compulsory vaccination obsolete because the challenge for the health system is changing,” Vogel told the “Welt”. “Perhaps, for example, our vaccination picking remains dangerous, especially with the elderly. We are currently learning new things here every day. These issues will be discussed in the Bundestag debate.”
As the “Bild” newspaper reports, citing high-ranking Bundestag circles, an initial debate about a general vaccination requirement will not take place until the end of January. SPD parliamentary group vice-president Dirk Wiese had named the coming week for a first referral shortly before the turn of the year. A later vote should take place without any group pressure. The chairman of the German Ethics Council, Alena Buyx, called for a differentiated discussion about the introduction of a general vaccination requirement. The physical self-determination, the restriction of which is the subject of the compulsory vaccination, is a great asset, Buyx told the dpa. So it has to be considered carefully. In the end, politics have to decide.
In its statement published in December, a majority of the Ethics Council advocated an expansion of the recently decided corona vaccination obligation for staff in sensitive facilities to “significant parts of the population”. However, there were differing views on the scope and the precise structure of an extended mandatory vaccination.