Broad debate about compulsory corona vaccination for nurses | Currently Germany | DW

Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder met with widespread opposition to the demand that nurses be vaccinated. Söder justified his move with the fact that “too few” employees in old people’s and nursing homes were vaccinated, although the residents there were particularly at risk from the corona virus. Söder said it was about the “protection of the elderly”. The CSU politician pointed out that there is already a compulsory vaccination for measles to protect children: “The effects of Corona are at least as bad as those of measles.” He rejects a general compulsory vaccination; At the same time, he proposed that the German Ethics Council should discuss compulsory vaccination for staff in hospitals and nursing homes.

With his advance Söder sparked a lively debate in the parties as well as in professional associations and unions, in which criticism and opposition predominated. Union parliamentary group leader Ralph Brinkhaus spoke out in favor of reducing reservations about vaccination through better education. The CDU politician called for special protection for old people in the homes: “It makes me incredibly sad how dying has started among the very old,” he said.

SPD and opposition disagree

Opposition came from the SPD. Federal Social Minister Hubertus Heil said: “I think that the right way is that we do not introduce compulsory vaccinations.” Instead, you have to advertise more to nurses and doctors. Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil emphasized: “The discussion about compulsory vaccinations for certain professional groups does not bring us any further.” Reasoning about compulsory vaccination now rather arouses more distrust than more willingness to vaccinate.

Left parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch warned that a debate about compulsory vaccinations for nurses would “do the opposite” and increase reservations. FDP leader Christian Lindner said: “For constitutional reasons, we consider compulsory vaccination for people who work in the care sector to be highly problematic.”

Green parliamentary group leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt demanded: “What it takes is a very clear, unambiguous awareness campaign so that all nursing staff know how the vaccinations work.” AfD parliamentary director Bernd Baumann also said: “This is where arguments are needed to convince people, and there are arguments.”

Verdi rejects forced vaccination

“The vaccination must be voluntary; there must be no compulsory vaccination for certain professional groups,” said the head of the Verdi union, Frank Werneke. He called on the workers to get vaccinated. “After weighing up all the chances and risks, it is advisable to get vaccinated for reasons of self-protection and the protection of relatives, unless there are serious health reasons against it,” he says.

The human geneticist Wolfgang Henn, who is a member of the ethics council mentioned by Söder, was also skeptical. “I am confident that we can do this on a voluntary basis,” he said.

Education instead of obligation

The federal government’s representative for nursing, Andreas Westerfellhaus, also rejected compulsory vaccination for nursing professions. He relies on education and a voluntary decision. “Whenever I act with pressure, I will possibly achieve exactly the opposite with it,” he pointed out and warned against increasing frustration in the highly stressed occupational group.

Social associations also emphasized the goal of more education instead of legal compulsion. Diakonie President Ulrich Lilie said that confidence in the effectiveness and safety of vaccinations will grow “because more and more vaccinated care workers will encourage their colleagues to get vaccinated”.

Montgomery shows a clear edge

Söder received approval from World Medical President Frank-Ulrich Montgomery. “Anyone who deals with vulnerable groups must be immunized” – either through having survived the COVID-19 illness or through a vaccination, he said with a view to caregivers. “For nurses and medical staff, a job-specific vaccination against Corona makes sense.”

In the long term, Montgomery does not want to restrict mandatory vaccination to individual professional groups: “In the long term, we need a general mandatory vaccination against Corona.” To do this, however, sufficient knowledge about long-term side effects of vaccines would have to be available.