Health Minister Spahn also speaks out against people vaccinated against the coronavirus receiving benefits. The physician Montgomery can imagine this in the long term – and drew a comparison with the measles vaccination.
Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn rejects special rights for vaccinated people. “Many wait in solidarity so that some can be vaccinated first. And those who have not yet been vaccinated expect the vaccinated to be patient in solidarity,” Spahn told the newspapers of the Funke media group.
“Nobody should claim special rights until everyone has had a chance to vaccinate.” It is this mutual respect that holds the nation together: “We are fighting the pandemic together – and we will only overcome it together,” said the CDU politician.
Spahn is critical of vaccine license production
Spahn called im BR the start of the corona vaccinations as a “giant step” in the fight against the pandemic. “Vaccination is the key to defeating this virus. How we can keep it under control, with AHA rules, distance, lockdowns, we know that. This is exhausting and annoying. How we can defeat it, the key is now in us of the hand. “
Regarding the demands of FDP boss Christian Lindner that the vaccine should also be produced under license by other pharmaceutical companies, Spahn said: “I have the impression that some underestimate the complexity and also the requirements, especially in terms of quality in vaccine production You don’t even set it up in any hall in three days, not even in a pharmaceutical company. “
They are in close contact with Biontech and Pfizer to make additional production facilities possible, including in Germany. A plant in Marburg has been taken over by Biontech. The aim is that production can start there in the first quarter. “If that were to succeed, the available quantity would increase enormously very, very quickly,” assured Spahn.
Seehofer and Lauterbach also against privileges
Before Spahn, Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer had spoken out on special rights for vaccinated people. The CSU politician had assured at the weekend that there would be no preferential treatment of vaccinated persons by the state. Otherwise, this equates to a compulsory vaccination – but he is against compulsion, emphasized Seehofer in the “Bild am Sonntag”. He also opposed unequal treatment by private companies such as airlines.
The SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach also turned against privileges for vaccinated people. Such privileges would be “neither controllable nor easy to justify,” he told the newspapers of the Funke media group.
Incidentally, it cannot be ruled out that those who have been vaccinated could still infect other people with the corona virus.
Montgomery draws a comparison with compulsory measles vaccination
On the other hand, World Medical President Frank Ulrich Montgomery thinks it is conceivable to grant people vaccinated against the coronavirus special rights in the long term. “At the moment, when you cannot offer a vaccination to everyone, such a procedure is out of the question,” emphasized Montgomery on Deutschlandfunk. Later on, when all people have the chance to be vaccinated and more is known about the evidence of immunity in the blood, appropriate decisions are possible.
He gave other examples of a similar approach: Some states have issued entry bans for people who have not been vaccinated against yellow fever. In addition, there is a measles vaccination requirement as a prerequisite for admission to a daycare center in Germany.
Montgomery expects sufficient vaccine for the course of 2021 to achieve herd immunity against Covid-19 in Germany.
Vaccinations started in EU
Vaccinations started across the EU on Sunday. According to the vaccination plan for Germany, people in old people’s homes and nursing homes as well as vulnerable staff in hospitals will be vaccinated first. In addition to mobile vaccination teams, there are more than 400 vaccination centers nationwide.
