3G rule, chargeable tests and many loopholes: the most recent decisions by the Prime Minister’s Conference have been the subject of criticism. Not only politicians are disappointed.
It will soon be complicated for unvaccinated people: on Tuesday the federal and state governments agreed on the 3G rule. Those who have not been tested, recovered or vaccinated must, among other things, refrain from going to restaurants or the cinema. In the fight against a fourth corona wave, non-vaccinated people also have to prepare for mandatory testing. Consumers will have to bear the costs themselves from October 11th. The stated goal: to get as many people as possible to have the vaccine as quickly as possible. If another lockdown becomes unavoidable, some are already planning to tighten it further.
The 3G rule should apply to clinics, nursing homes, indoor catering, events indoors, at the hairdresser’s, in fitness studios, sports halls or in swimming pools. In the case of accommodation, evidence should be required upon arrival and – for those who have not been vaccinated and those who have not recovered – a test twice a week. Rapid tests should only be free of charge for those who cannot be vaccinated or for whom there is no general vaccination recommendation, such as pregnant women and under-18s. Opinions on the decisions are divided.
Paid tests could make fighting pandemic more difficult
FDP, Linke and AfD criticized the abolition of the free rapid tests. The deputy FDP leader Wolfgang Kubicki and the party leader of the Left, Janine Wissler, fear a decline in the willingness to test among unvaccinated people. “The abolition of the exemption for tests will have a counterproductive effect in coping with the pandemic. Because this means that significantly fewer people decide to do such a test,” said Kubicki of the “Rheinische Post”.
“This makes it more difficult to understand the chains of infection and the development of the infection process, it does not help anyone. In the end, it is more expensive than the tests,” said Wissler to the editorial network in Germany. In addition, it is completely unclear how those in the vaccination center who are still entitled to a free test should identify themselves, criticized FDP Vice Kubicki. After all, it is partly about sensitive health data. “So a new infrastructure has to be built in order to be able to continue testing these people for free,” he said.
AfD top candidate Timo Chrupalla described the paid tests as “irresponsible”. In the morning magazine of ARD and ZDF, he emphasized that the vaccinations must remain voluntary. “There can be no compulsory vaccination through the back door here.”
Bartsch criticizes resolutions as “short-sighted amateurism”
For others, the resolutions of the federal-state conference do not go far enough. SPD health politician Karl Lauterbach told the newspapers of the “Funke Mediengruppe” on Wednesday: “I would have found it better to limit major events with hundreds of people in clubs or halls to those who have recovered and who have been vaccinated.” These are potential superspreader events. With the obligation to test indoors from an incidence of 35, one can “work very well”. “I would have set the limit below an incidence of 35,” said Lauterbach.
Left parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch was also disappointed. He criticized the resolutions as “piecemeal” without a plan to advance the vaccination campaign and to provide incentives for the people. “After the federal election there is a risk of schools being closed again. The citizens are fed up with this short-sighted amateurism,” he told the newspapers of the “Funke Mediengruppe”.
Nursing facilities and schools are being passed over again
The health expert of the Greens in the Bundestag, Janosch Dahmen, expressed a similar opinion. “Instead of finally making care facilities and schools safe, instead of presenting concrete measures to speed up vaccination, people are trying to get people to vaccinate instead of convincing arguments through pressure,” said Dahmen of the “Rheinische Post”. It is the task of the federal government to ensure convincing educational work, more mobility of vaccination offers and the coordination of the protection of children and families.
The teachers ‘associations also criticized the focus: It would have been urgently necessary to agree to equip as many classrooms as possible with room air filter systems in the next few weeks, said the President of the German Teachers’ Association, Heinz-Peter Meidinger, of the German editorial network. “We fear that there will be more countries that largely abandon their schools on this issue.” The chairman of the education and science union (GEW), Maike Finnern, told the RND that the summit had failed to provide clarity with nationwide uniform guidelines.
The General Practitioners’ Association also reacted disappointed to the results of the Prime Minister’s Conference. It would have “finally needed a nationwide, comprehensive assessment system of the pandemic on the basis of various factors,” said the chairman of the family doctors’ association, Ulrich Weigeldt, the newspapers of the “Funke” media group. For the development of such new standards “there was enough time in the last few months”.
The German industry criticizes the resolutions as inadequate and, above all, sees the companies as insufficiently informed. The federal and state governments are “obliged to quickly create clarity as to when the changes decided on for the public also apply in companies,” said the Federation of German Industries (BDI) on Wednesday. The implementation is “too vague”.
Benefits may only be available for vaccinated and convalescent people
The German Association of Towns and Municipalities welcomed the measures. “It is correct that, from October 11th, the citizen tests will only be free of charge for people who cannot be vaccinated. Anyone who does not accept a vaccination offer must accept a self-financed negative test for access to certain public events must show “, said the chief executive of the German Association of Cities and Towns, Gerd Landsberg, on Wednesday of the” Rheinische Post “.
The chairman of the ethics council, Alena Buyx, considers the introduction of the chargeable corona tests for unvaccinated people to be the right thing to do. Anyone who decides against the vaccination despite all the low-threshold vaccination offers will ultimately ensure that the pandemic continues, Buyx told the Phoenix broadcaster on Wednesday. However, it must also be ensured that the willingness to test “does not go completely into the basement,” said Buyx at the same time. Therefore, the effectiveness of this measure must be monitored very closely in October, as well as the entire pandemic situation.
In the event that the situation does not improve despite the measures adopted and the incidences continue to rise, the Bavarian Prime Minister and CSU Chairman Markus Söder spoke out in favor of the 2G rule. According to this, only those who have been vaccinated and recovered should have access to public facilities, while the rest of them are locked down. “2G will come one way or another from a certain point in time, and I would prefer we would talk honestly about it now than postpone it until after the federal election,” he said on Tuesday evening on ARD. The fourth wave cannot be broken with tests alone.
There is currently only agreement on the goal of promoting vaccination among the population. Most recently, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier called for people to be vaccinated against the corona virus. Only vaccination is the silver bullet out of the pandemic.
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