After successful lawsuits against the Corona Vaccination Ordinance, requests from severely disabled people to receive preferential vaccination are increasing. The city of Frankfurt would like to comply – but cannot do so in full.
Vincent Kast comes from the Frankfurt Festhalle, the city’s vaccination center. It’s dark, it’s pouring, but Kast is happy. “It’s a relief to have the first vaccination now,” he says. The 24-year-old fought for the vaccination before the Frankfurt administrative court, because cases like his are not explicitly regulated in the federal vaccination ordinance.
Kast has been in a wheelchair since an accident five years ago. He is almost paralyzed from the neck down, and that affects the lungs as well. He cannot breathe so vigorously and cough up what has been swallowed. His doctors say that a Covid infection could be very harmful to him – he might need artificial respiration.
Paraplegics not mentioned in regulation
The vaccination ordinance only lists people with comparable previous illnesses in the third priority group. Paraplegia is not mentioned at all. No authority could have told him when it was his turn, says Kast. But he wanted clarity. So he went to court.
Kast studies physics at the Goethe University in Frankfurt and lives in his own apartment. There he is also cared for. The Frankfurt administrative court found that the close contact with nurses and therapists gave him a very high risk of infection. Kast must therefore be vaccinated.
The Frankfurt health department head Stefan Majer (Greens) implemented the judgment immediately: He offered Kast and two other plaintiffs vaccination appointments. Since this became known, more and more people have reported to the city who see themselves as cases of hardship. According to the health department, over 50 people have asked for priority vaccination, which formally does not belong to the first priority group.
City cannot freely dispose of vaccine
That puts the city in a mess. Because she cannot freely dispose of the vaccine. She receives fixed contingents from the state, which are measured according to the defined priority groups. Majer therefore calls for a solution for people with severe disabilities, a solution for the whole of Hesse: “The best thing we need is a contingent and clear regulation that people can be vaccinated with the highest priority.”
Majer says he has already turned to the state government about this. According to reports, a regulation is already being worked on in Wiesbaden. What it looks like and when it will come – the state government did not announce that on Thursday when asked by hr
Broadcast: hr-iNFO, 04.02.2021, 7.25 pm
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