The vaccination should come. But before that happens, 30 million Germans are to be vaccinated or boosted voluntarily by Christmas. Experts welcome this, but are skeptical.
Experts consider the 30 million additional vaccinations targeted by the designated Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) by Christmas to be very ambitious. “This is logistically difficult to implement, since around 1.5 million vaccinations would have to be administered a day,” said Thomas Schulz, head of the Institute for Virology at the Hannover Medical School, the editorial network in Germany. For comparison: According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), around 532,000 vaccine doses were administered in Germany on Monday, 422,000 of which were booster vaccinations. The record day was June 9th with a total of 1.4 million cans.
“I do not have the impression that the doctors do not get the vaccine to the man, but that there are problems with the distribution of the vaccine,” said Schulz. The epidemiologist Hajo Zeeb, head of the Prevention and Evaluation department at the Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology in Bremen, told the RND that he had doubts about the implementation of the goal because of a possible lack of vaccines, “but even a narrow failure would be something.” . A new crisis team headed by the Bundeswehr General Carsten Breuer is to help implement the 30 million goal.
Parliamentary vote on compulsory vaccination: According to Scholz, there should be no parliamentary party obligation
Scholz and the managing Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) reached an agreement with the heads of government of the federal states on Tuesday that new measures against the high number of corona cases in large parts of Germany should be decided in the coming days. Accordingly, there are plans to restrict contact for unvaccinated people, stricter requirements at major events and 2G (access only for vaccinated and convalescent people) for other areas such as retail.
A general compulsory vaccination should also be initiated. Scholz takes the view that there should not be any parliamentary party compulsory when voting in the Bundestag on such a law. “That is good practice with such fundamental questions,” said Scholz on Tuesday evening in the ARD “Tagesthemen”. “Almost every German has an opinion on this. I think these are exactly the cases that have to be decided this way.” Usually, political groups in parliament vote in unison. However, there have also been deviations from this principle in the past, for example on issues such as euthanasia or organ donation. Scholz himself wants to agree to a general compulsory vaccination and expects an introduction in February or March.
The designated Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) assumes that if the vaccination obligation is violated, a fine would be imposed. “If there were to be a general compulsory vaccination, there would be a broad consensus among constitutional lawyers that it would not be permissible to force people to vaccinate,” he told the RND.
Vaccine effectiveness against Omikron: Biontech boss Sahin confident
According to Biontech boss Ugur Sahin, people in Germany still have “hard four or five months” ahead of them because of the fourth wave of pandemics. Due to the cold season and the frequent stay in rooms, the risk of infection with the corona virus is higher. It is now important to be patient, to observe the Corona rules of conduct and to be vaccinated or boosted, he told the German Press Agency in Mainz on Tuesday evening. Then the situation will relax significantly by spring.
Sahin was also confident that corona vaccines will protect against serious disease progression in the case of Omikron and the following other virus variants. Omikron is not the first Corona variant that has emerged, said Sahin in Mainz when he and his wife Özlem Türeci were awarded this year’s prize by the Turkish Aydin Dogan Foundation.
Source From: Stern
