Confucius is said to have said that if you make a mistake and don’t correct it, you make a second one. A wisdom that many a traffic light minister should hang on the wall. For example, Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD).
In an interview with WELT AM SONNTAG a few days ago, he indirectly indicated that he wanted to extend the facility-related corona vaccination requirement in hospitals, nursing homes and medical practices. This is currently limited to the end of December.
Lauterbach said: “One of the main goals of our pandemic policy was and is to protect the most vulnerable groups in particular – the old, the sick. That’s why it makes sense that those who take care of them shouldn’t become a danger themselves.”
This may be correct at first glance – but not at second glance. And for three reasons:
Firstly, especially since the omicron variant, masses of vaccinated people have also been infected with the corona virus and can spread the infection. The main argument that vaccinated employees would not pose a danger to the residents is thus invalidated.
Virologist Klaus Stöhr dampens expectations of the new omicron boosters: “It would be wrong to raise hopes. As far as the infection is concerned, the vaccine will not bring much improvement, ”said Stöhr.
Source: WORLD
Second, facility-based vaccination is a law that is rarely enforced. The health authorities have the discretion to only impose a ban on entry if this does not endanger patient care. As a result, most unvaccinated employees simply continue to work.
Third: The law usually only becomes painful when it comes to new hires, such as trainees. Anyone who has not been vaccinated twice – even three times from October – is not allowed to work. And that in an industry where there is a massive shortage of staff. The functionality of the health system is the decisive criterion for the imposition of corona measures in autumn and winter.
Many federal states, which welcomed compulsory vaccination when it was introduced in mid-March, are now calling for it to be phased out. Even the German Hospital Society considers a continuation to be “neither useful nor communicable”. Well-known lawyers certify that the regulation has constitutional problems with a view to the new Infection Protection Act.
Health Minister Lauterbach would therefore be well advised to let the facility-related vaccination requirement expire – and to admit that it has failed in its implementation.
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