A retirement home in southern Baden wants to reach the Federal Constitutional Court so that residents vaccinated against Corona can eat together in the canteen again. A corresponding urgent application and a constitutional complaint had gone to the Karlsruhe court, said lawyer Patrick Heinemann, who represents the home in the Lörrach district and a 79-year-old resident. The home had failed before the lower courts.
A spokesman for the Federal Constitutional Court confirmed the receipt of the complaint and the urgent application on Friday, March 26, 2021 (Az .: 1 BvR 609/21). The German Foundation for Patient Protection considers the move to the court to be an important step.
Prevention and protection against infection need limits
“We are convinced that prevention and protection against infection are important, but also have their limits,” said Heinemann. The seniors in the facilities have been suffering massively from the Corona measures for a year. The staff in the home in Steinen reported that the residents suffered massive degradation due to their isolation, some were neglected and developed depression. With a few exceptions, all residents are vaccinated. “There will be no more secure protection in the long term either,” said the lawyer.
Backing from virologists and patient advocates
The administrative court in Mannheim had argued in its decision that it had not been scientifically adequately clarified whether vaccinated people could pass the virus on. That’s not true, said Heinemann. The court relied on outdated knowledge. For the constitutional complaint, they got backing from virologists and patient advocates, among others.
“It sounds like a story from Absurdistan,” said the chairman of the German Patient Protection Foundation, Eugen Brysch. “Vaccinated home residents are not allowed to drink coffee together because of the risk of infection.” But what happens in the home in Steinen is common practice in many of the 12,000 nursing homes in Germany. Although 95 percent of the 900,000 residents received a first vaccination and 73 percent a second vaccination, there were strict contact restrictions, said Brysch.
The risk that vaccinated people could pass on the virus does not justify the ongoing massive encroachments on fundamental rights, argued the patient protectionist. “It is therefore overdue for the Federal Constitutional Court to clarify the matter in an urgent procedure. Otherwise the political concept of getting out of the corona crisis with vaccination and testing makes no sense. “
(dpa / NZ)
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