Lauterbach, Federal Minister of Health: “No one is going to jail if they do not want to be vaccinated”
The “Bundestag”, the federal parliament, approved this Friday with a large majority the mandatory vaccination against the coronavirus in Germany of all health personnel in hospitals, medical centers and consultations, ambulances and delivery rooms, as well as in care in residences or home of the elderly and people with chronic diseases. The law approved by the German lower house at the initiative of the new governing coalition of Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals received the support of 571 deputies, by 80 votes against and 38 abstentions and establishes that all those people must demonstrate as of 15th of March 2022 and until the end of the year who have been fully immunized or present a medical certificate that exempts them from vaccination for health reasons. To comply with the requirements of mandatory vaccination, all German health sector personnel who have not yet been vaccinated will have to have received the first dose at the latest in early February.
“No one is going to go to jail if they do not want to be vaccinated,” said the new federal Minister of Health, the social democratic epidemiologist Karl Lauterbach, but whoever does not do so must be prohibited from continuing to practice their profession and even possible dismissal by from his employer, who is obliged to monitor the vaccination of all his staff and to report to the health authorities those who refuse to be immunized. As for the possible compulsory vaccination for all citizens of the country, which the parliament will debate at the beginning of the year and which is defended by the tripartite under the orders of the federal chancellor, Olaf Scholz, Lauterbach warned that “the issuance of fines” will be inevitable. those who refuse to be immunized and its “appreciable rise” for those who do not want to pay. The head of Health pointed out that psychologists and economists will be consulted to decide its amount, which in Germany is usually directly related to people’s regular income.
Among healthcare personnel, anyone who has received a Chinese or Russian preparation will be considered unvaccinated, since these vaccines have not yet been authorized by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), something that could affect healthcare personnel from eastern Europe. Europe that works in Germany, although it is to be expected that they will sign up for the soda campaign with authorized products. Those healed of an infection with covid-19 will also have to be vaccinated within a maximum period of six months after contracting the disease. The mandatory vaccination of health personnel is another step in the process of issuing this measure for the entire population of the country, an action that neighboring Austria has already agreed to. Since the end of November, all members of the “Bundeswehr”, the federal army, are obliged to be immunized against the coronavirus, just as they were and are to protect themselves from other diseases such as yellow fever or tetanus. The Bundestag plans to discuss mandatory vaccination against Sars-cov-2 virus for the entire population early next year.
Lauterbach stressed that the goal of his ministry is to break the wave of infections with the delta variant that Germany currently suffers, the fourth according to national accounts, and limit the spread of the omicron variant. He also expressed his satisfaction with the strong acceleration of the current vaccination campaign. The new Federal Chancellor, the Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, had already announced before coming to power that his wish was to administer more than 30 million vaccines this December, a goal that seems achievable, given the current rate of more than one million. daily doses administered. Germany seems to have already passed the peak of the fourth wave, but the numbers of infections remain very high although they have been remitting for a few days. This Friday the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported 61,288 new infections in the last 24 hours, compared to 74,352 on the same day the previous week. Also, the incidence rate per 100,000 inhabitants has fallen in one week from 442.1 cases to 413.7 cases.
The German lower house also approved several reforms to the Pandemic Protection Act, including the authorization of pharmacists, dentists and veterinarians to administer vaccines and thus further enhance the national immunization campaign. In addition, the reform includes providing the federal states with greater powers in health matters such as the closure of gastronomic establishments and the suspension of industrial and business fairs and events. The “Bundestag” also approved extending until February 15 the issuance of local curfews and the closure of companies in those districts where the incidence of the coronavirus reaches alarming levels.
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