Only with a Covid vaccination to the cinema or to a concert?

Only with vaccination at cultural events? Exceptions are also being checked in Switzerland. Image: keystone

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Only with a Covid vaccination to the cinema or to a concert? Why the industry is (still) against it

In Israel there are already events and places where only vaccinated people are allowed. The federal government is also examining similar rules for Switzerland – but the cultural sector doubts the benefits.

Christoph Bernet / ch media

Things are moving less quickly than hoped for, but they are moving steadily forward: According to the latest figures from the Federal Office of Public Health (BAG), 7.1 percent of the Swiss population have already received a Covid 19 vaccination (see table). Primarily residents of retirement and nursing homes, members of risk groups and health workers were vaccinated.

According to the army pharmacy, which is responsible for procurement, significantly larger quantities of vaccination doses should be delivered in the second quarter of this year. All adults who wish to be vaccinated should be vaccinated by the end of July.

With these prospects, the discussion about so-called vaccination privileges has received new impetus. In particular because from April there will be cultural and sporting events with an audience again with limited capacity. That is what the Federal Council’s opening strategy provides.

Federal Council takes advice from the ethics committee

Then at the latest the question arises whether unequal treatment of vaccinated and non-vaccinated people is permissible. This distinction is already practiced in other countries. For example in Israel. Only holders of the “Green Pass” for vaccinated persons are admitted to the fitness clubs, swimming pools and cultural and sporting events that will reopen on Sunday.

In Switzerland, the Federal Council intends to hear the national ethics committee in the field of human medicine soon. Last week, the commission wrote in a statement that “both the lifting of certain restrictions for vaccinated persons and the request for a vaccination certificate for individual activities of daily living are justifiable under certain conditions”.

Skepticism in the cinema and concert industry

In the cultural sector, skepticism currently prevails when it comes to privileges for vaccinated people. On the one hand, their number is currently too small to be a profitable target group. On the other hand, there are still many unanswered questions. Christoph Bill from the Association of Large Concert, Show and Festival Organizers SMPA says:

Especially when not all those willing to be vaccinated have had the opportunity to be vaccinated, the exclusion of unvaccinated persons is “ethically questionable”. Even afterwards it is questionable whether mandatory vaccination is the right approach. At most, concert goers could be required to perform a negative rapid test so that concerts are a safe place. Apart from that, they are also with the existing non-slip protection concepts.

It sounds similar with René Gerber from ProCinema. He says:

For an economical operation, the decisive question is not how many spectators – whether exclusively vaccinated or not – are allowed to sit in the hall: “Our industry is heavily dependent on the international context. If the cinemas in neighboring countries and in the USA remain closed, no new films that we can show will come onto the market. “

“Will we consider whether the same restrictions should apply to vaccinated people?”

As for the ethics committee, for Christoph Berger, President of the Federal Commission for Vaccination, the decisive question is whether people who have been vaccinated can spread the virus – or whether they represent a significantly lower risk of infection: “Today we still lack the necessary knowledge.” Therefore, the vaccination is currently only used as self-protection.

If there is evidence that vaccinated people are not or only rarely contagious to others, “we will consider whether the same restrictions should apply to them”. In addition to events, Berger is also thinking of quarantine and lifting restrictions on visits, for example in old people’s homes.