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In the infection room for Covid-19 patients, the employee of an intensive care unit holds a patient's hand (archive image)
Photo: Bernd Wüstneck / dpa
Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn is once again causing heated discussions on the presumably last meters of his term of office.
The CDU politician had ordered that from next week the options for ordering the Covid vaccine from Pfizer / Biontech should be restricted.
The background to the decision: The vaccine from the US company Moderna, which has already been stored, is to be used increasingly before its best-before date expires.
In politics, but especially among doctors, this is causing sharp criticism.
"We are stunned to see how every commitment to fight the pandemic is nipped in the bud by our health minister," says a statement by the organization for outpatient medicine in East Hesse.
The association, in which mainly family doctors are organized, wanted to immunize more than 1000 people in 15 country doctor's practices on December 4th - and now does not know whether the necessary vaccine will be delivered at all.
In view of the worsening pandemic, there is only one goal: "We just want to vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate!"
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Critics complain that Spahn is massively unsettling the patients with his incomprehensible decision. "This completely misses the reality and is irresponsible," said the SPD health minister in Rhineland-Palatinate, Clemens Hoch. Bavaria's Minister of Health, Klaus Holetschek (CSU), also sharply criticized Spahn's announcement: It was unacceptable, "it must be discussed and resolved." Holetschek is chairman of the conference of health ministers of the federal states and wants to address the cap on the Biontech vaccine on Monday at the next joint meeting.
Meanwhile, more and more prominent supporters of mandatory vaccination are speaking out. Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) said that he did not know whether you could get by without a general vaccination requirement in the long term. His official colleague Daniel Günther, CDU Prime Minister in Schleswig-Holstein, also made a similar statement: Although he still hopes “that in the end it will be possible without a general vaccination requirement. If not, I'm ready to take this step, ”said Günther in an interview with“ Die Welt ”. "Our country must not be permanently dominated by this pandemic."
Karin Prien, CDU education minister in Günther's cabinet and applicant for one of the vice-posts in the upcoming CDU board election, signaled her approval of mandatory vaccinations on Deutschlandfunk. "I think it's right that this taboo topic has finally been broken by now wanting to regulate a partial mandatory vaccination in the medical and nursing field," said Prien: "I think we need a discussion about mandatory vaccination in the Total population. We have tabooed that for far too long. "
In any case, she is not prepared to discuss school closings again "until we have also vaccinated all adults who can be vaccinated".
The majority of the population have the supporters on their side: In a recent survey, 52 percent of Germans are in favor of a general compulsory vaccination against the coronavirus.
Curfews in the southwest
It is already becoming apparent that everyday life is becoming more difficult for the unvaccinated.
For people without proven corona immunization, restrictions will already come into force in some hotspots in Germany in the coming hours.
In three municipalities in Baden-Württemberg, a curfew applies from midnight: In the Schwarzwald-Baar district, in the Ostalb district and in Biberach, people without a corona vaccination are only allowed on the street between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. with special justification. Exceptions include medical emergencies and work reasons.
In Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands, protests against the Corona measures sometimes led to violent violence.
On Saturday, 35,000 people in Vienna took to the streets in solidarity with Nazis and lateral thinkers - regardless of the more than 15,000 new corona infections in Austria within 24 hours.
Several people were arrested, including for showing Nazi symbols.
A police spokesman spoke of a heated mood.
A three-week lockdown begins on Monday in Austria to break the fourth wave of corona.
In Brussels, protesters had thrown fireworks, stones and objects at police officers.
Barricades were set on fire several times.
The security forces responded by using water cannons and tear gas.
In the past few nights there had been riots in several places in the Netherlands.
Young people in particular engaged in street battles with the police under the pretext of protests against Corona measures and in some cases also attacked rescue workers.
The riots in Rotterdam were particularly violent.
Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb spoke of an "orgy of violence".
The police said they had fired sharply several times and injured several demonstrators in the process.