“Change of vaccination sequence, return to basic rights – who is allowed to do what again when?” Anne Will discussed this with her guests. Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht showed a clear stance on openings.
“Why don’t fully vaccinated and recovered people get all civil liberties back immediately?”, The hostess asked Christine Lambrecht at the opening. She alluded to the fact that the Justice Minister’s current draft ordinance provides for the abolition of exit and contact restrictions for the groups mentioned, but not for allowing them to visit hotels, restaurants and swimming pools.
The lifting of the contact restrictions for vaccinated people was imperative, replied Lambrecht. The reason for this no longer applies since the Robert Koch Institute found that vaccinated people pose little risk of virus transmission. “We see light at the end of the tunnel,” said the SPD politician. However, this does not result in a “right to claim” that “something will be opened for me”. Because then one would have to regulate “that such opening steps may only apply to vaccinated people”, which would be a distinction “that cannot be traced” and “bring explosives into society”. The reason for the restrictions still applies to restaurants. Your regulation will be “judicially proof”, especially since it will hopefully only apply for a short transition period if the vaccination continues to get going.
The guests
- Christine Lambrecht (SPD), Minister of Justice
- Markus Söder, CSU chairman and Bavarian Prime Minister
- Christiane Woopen, Chair of the European Ethics Council
- Michael Hüther, Director of the Institute for German Economics, Cologne
- Martin striker, Virology
In principle, the economist Michael Hüther did not want to contradict this (“I am convinced, these are the most obvious basic rights”) – the director of the Institute of German Economy merely remarked that “the question of professional practice” then comes “very quickly”. He questioned the effectiveness of the curfews (“there is no good empirical evidence for it”) and demanded: “We have to learn again: How does opening work?”
Even Markus Söder, who was involved, certified that the SPD colleague had “addressed the issue very well”. With the exception of the occasional “We in Bavaria” self-praise, the Prime Minister refrained from campaigning and profiling. He defended the emergency braking measures (“without curfews the numbers would have run away”), stressed that the return of rights must go hand in hand with faster vaccination (“my petition is to vaccinate now in the factories”) and also spread confidence: “It’s a long home straight, but it’s a home straight.”
The virologist Martin Stürmer and the chairwoman of the European Ethics Council, Christiane Woopen, introduced warning words into the discussion. Stürmer said he was “d’accord” with equating vaccinated, convalescent and antigen-tested people, but nothing more. After all, it is not the case that vaccinated persons pose no risk of infection at all – a residual risk remains, which is why the distance rules must continue to apply. As long as the new infections remain at the current high level, there is also the risk of mutations and the development of vaccine-resistant virus variants. Woopen called for “monitoring” to clarify the question: “How long is someone immune?” There are uncertainties in all three groups.
With a film about loneliness and isolation in nursing homes, whose residents are still not allowed to have lunch together despite being vaccinated, Anne Will raised the question of whether the now announced easing for these people would not be “unforgivably” late. One had to wait for the RKI’s scientific assessment of the risk of infection by vaccinated people, defended himself Lambrecht. But that’s been there since March 31, insisted Anne Will. In the meantime, she had “drilled very, very thick boards”, replied Lambrecht, saying that her ordinance could “come to a conclusion this week”.
“Are we really happy that we have now brought the biggest construction site on the right track by vaccinating,” her Söder agreed again, “the other things” can be gradually improved. Regarding the risk of the mutations, the CSU boss noted that monitoring them was a “central challenge”. Incidentally, we would “definitely” not only have to vaccinate once: “Nobody should now believe: piked twice and that’s it. It will be everyday life for the next few years.”
There were divergent opinions on the question of lifting the vaccination prioritization – while Söder was in favor (“targeted free vaccination”), Woopen feared a “race” in this case that would be won again by those “who are already better off socially who have contacts with general practitioners “. However, the group largely agreed that it was necessary to increasingly bring the vaccination campaign to “hot spots”, where both the incidences and the psychosocial consequences of the corona measures were greatest.
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