The wind of freedom is blowing through Corona Europe – from Great Britain to Denmark. In England there is no longer a mask requirement, you no longer need proof of vaccination and in Denmark almost all corona rules will fall on Tuesday.
With us, on the other hand, the recovered status is halved and there is a dogged discussion about vaccination requirements.
MPs are not even allowed in the plenary session of the Bundestag if they have been tested. And: Nursing services, health authorities and district administrators are up in arms against the mandatory vaccination for hospitals and nursing homes that will apply from March 16 because there is a risk of a nursing shortage.
Does mandatory vaccination do more harm than good?
On Sunday evening, Germany’s best-known opponent of compulsory vaccination, FDP Vice Wolfgang Kubicki (69), and Germany’s toughest advocate of compulsory vaccination, the Green mayor of Tübingen, Boris Palmer (49), argued.
Kubicki: “In 14 days we reached the peak of the omicron wave, after that it goes downhill again. I think the first measures will fall again in mid-March at the end of March. On the order of Easter, we will return to the normality of life.”
Palmer has so far been seen as an advocate of compulsory vaccination for those over 50, but also said: “I can now live with it more easily if vaccination is not compulsory because it can be seen that Omicron will not have the serious consequences for our society that one in November or December because of the huge numbers with good reason.” That is now a question of weighing up.
Bad: the mood is now so heated that Boris Palmer’s private home has recently become the destination of a “walk” by radical opponents of vaccination. Palmer: “Pedestrians came to my house last week and yelled ‘Palmer die’ from the crowd. It’s not something you want to experience in private.”
The so-called walkers came “with candles and without masks”. He has no doubt that his advocacy of compulsory vaccination was the reason for this.
Fascism comparisons are also used on the Internet to show who is committed to compulsory vaccination. Palmer further reported that “the worst caricatures” were being spread about him and that he had been called a Jew. In fact, he has Jewish ancestry.
Palmer: “My probability calculation says that the vaccination protects 80 to 90 percent against coming to the intensive care unit.”
To the unvaccinated over 60: “We can only reach these two and a half million people with a duty.” “The risk of a new lockdown next winter is too great for me.” That’s why he wants the vaccination. “I don’t want to see all these measures next winter.”
Palmer on BILD TV: “Those who have recovered are as well protected from infection as those who have been vaccinated. We need to make vaccination compulsory for the over 50s. I’ve always said we must choose the actions that require the least action and produce the greatest impact. This is now the vaccination. Those who are now unvaccinated benefit from the fact that there are so many vaccinated people.”
Kubicki: “In Germany we don’t know at all who has already recovered. We do not know the recovery status of our population. We have a vaccination rate of over 90 percent for people over 60, where should it be increased? We see the Danes getting back to normal and we think we need to scare our people.”
Kubicki: “I don’t like the comparison that there is only compulsory vaccination or lockdown. I find that irresponsible. We know from Berlin that 80 percent of the corona patients in the clinics are not patients due to corona at all, but only tested positive after admission.
What particularly annoys Kubicki: “The fact that people are put in the laces simply because of their vaccination status is now unbearable for me.” Kubicki was reacting to statements by the Chairman of the Board of the Federal Employment Agency, Detlef Scheele, that after the introduction of a general obligation to vaccinate, employers did not vaccinate Applicants are allowed to refuse and unvaccinated people who have become unemployed could only receive unemployment benefits after a blocking period.
The FDP politician locally: “I find it unabashed to come up with such suggestions in the current phase.” This could lead to people who were considering getting vaccinated not doing it right now.
Palmer: “That’s my argument for mandatory vaccination: I don’t want to have the discussion again next winter, if we had had mandatory vaccination, now we need lockdowns again.”
The FDP man also has an answer to this: “There are nowhere in the world who have recovered in the intensive care units, but there are people who have been vaccinated and boosted. You cannot introduce compulsory vaccination based on the assumption that an evil variant will come along at some point.”
Palmer: “I am not in favor of compulsory vaccination for over 50-year-olds and two, maximum three vaccinations anymore. It’s not about a vaccination subscription, but about the basic immunization, then it has to be over.”
Kubicki: “For three months we have seen that the attempt by us politicians to exclude the unvaccinated from social life via 2G rules has also not helped to significantly increase the vaccination rate.”
Boris Palmer has the final word: “You should definitely exempt those who have recovered from compulsory vaccination, because you can now determine the antibody status within 24 hours.”