“Not proportionate”
Bavaria questions the need for care vaccinations
04/24/2022, 08:15 am
The general corona vaccination requirement currently seems to be off the table, but the vaccination requirement for employees in nursing professions continues to apply. That is not only unfair, but also not proportionate, criticizes Bavaria’s Health Minister Holetschek – and makes a clear demand on Chancellor Scholz.
According to Bavaria’s Health Minister Klaus Holetschek, without a general corona vaccination obligation, the vaccination obligation for nursing professions must also be suspended as soon as possible. By Wednesday, the federal government must “finally come up with a new push for general vaccination. Only then does it make sense to stick to the institution-related vaccination obligation,” said the CSU politician.
Bavaria’s Health Minister Klaus Holetschek.
(Photo: Sven Hoppe/dpa/archive image)
At a public hearing on Wednesday, the Bundestag will deal with the obligation to vaccinate employees in facilities such as clinics and nursing homes, which has been in effect since mid-March. So far, this has only been prescribed by law until the end of the year and would be dropped again if the Infection Protection Act were not changed again. Critics complain that the health authorities would have to issue entry or activity bans for unvaccinated nursing staff from July 1, but that they would then be allowed to work again from January 2023.
According to Holetschek, Chancellor Olaf Scholz must now make the implementation of general vaccination a top priority. He must sit down “as soon as possible” with the parliamentary group leaders of all democratic parties in the Bundestag and the chairman of the Prime Ministers’ Conference and find a solution that can win a majority. “Otherwise, the institution-related vaccination obligation must be suspended as soon as possible.”
A unilateral vaccination obligation for employees in care is not only unfair, but also not proportionate. “Because it was only ever intended as a first step towards general vaccination,” said Holetschek. At the same time, he warned against not taking the topic seriously because of the current decline in numbers: “It does seem that there is a certain relaxation in the corona numbers at the moment. But that must not result in the federal government sitting its hands on its lap Because we must not go into autumn unprepared when the next wave of corona is imminent.”
Bavaria is preparing for the autumn wave
Bavaria is working intensively with experts on a concept for autumn. “But it is also important that there is a general obligation to vaccinate, at least for older people. The federal government must not cave in to the opponents of vaccination on this issue,” stressed Holetschek. The temporary failure of a general vaccination requirement in the Bundestag is mainly due to the fact that the Chancellor did not present his own concept, but ducked away.
A cross-party draft for a general obligation to vaccinate clearly failed in the Bundestag at the beginning of April. Scholz had made it clear that he now sees no basis for a renewed attempt.