Icon: enlarge
Nursing staff or hospital staff have a lot of contact with corona risk groups - should they therefore be obliged to vaccinate?
Photo:
Gruber / imago images / vmd-images
Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) had wanted a debate about a possible vaccination requirement for certain professional groups - and just a few hours later the discussion was in full swing.
Söder had proposed on Tuesday morning on ZDF that the ethics council should examine a mandatory vaccination requirement for nursing staff there to protect the residents of old people's and nursing homes.
The Prime Minister had referred to descriptions that the residents' willingness to vaccinate is significantly higher than that of the carers.
Criticism of the initiative largely followed from politics and associations.
The SPD in the Bundestag rejected the idea of the CSU boss: “Our goal is to convince people.
We reject compulsory vaccination, «said SPD parliamentary group vice-president Bärbel Bas.
Many nurses are well aware of their responsibility and of course have themselves vaccinated.
The willingness to do so is increasing.
Those who are still skeptical should be convinced.
Bas cited transparent research, public campaigns or education by employers as a means of doing this.
The German Nursing Council also rejects mandatory vaccination for nursing staff.
This would be a completely wrong signal, says the president of the organization, Franz Wagner, of the "Rheinische Post".
"If someone really has concerns about the vaccination, they first need good information tailored to the target group in order to deal with them." With force, one can achieve the opposite.
Caregiver fears even greater resistance
The federal government's authorized care representative, Andreas Westerfellhaus, also spoke out against compulsory vaccinations in care professions.
He suspects the opposite effect.
"I am an avowed supporter of the education and the voluntary decision," said Westerfellhaus the SWR.
"Whenever I act with pressure, I will possibly achieve exactly the opposite with it."
Westerfellhaus appealed at the same time "to all nursing staff to make their vaccination decision with professionalism and technical knowledge," it said in a statement.
"This is the only way you can protect yourself and the people you work with."
The Ver.di union also spoke out against compulsory vaccination for certain occupational groups - but called on healthcare workers to get vaccinated against Covid-19 as soon as possible.
"After weighing all the chances and risks, it is advisable to get vaccinated for reasons of self-protection and the protection of relatives, unless there are serious health reasons against it," says the union chairman Frank Werneke.
“The vaccination has to be voluntary.
There must be no compulsory vaccination for certain professional groups. «The debate about this is counterproductive for the social acceptance of vaccination measures.
World Medical President Montgomery advocates vaccination
The chairman of the World Medical Association, Frank-Ulrich Montgomery, approved the move.
He advocates compulsory vaccination for certain professional groups.
"Anyone who deals with vulnerable groups must be immunized," said Montgomery to the newspapers of the Funke media group.
This could be done either through surviving Covid 19 disease or through a vaccination.
"For nurses and medical staff, it makes sense to have a job-specific mandatory vaccination against Corona." The World Medical President also called for more far-reaching steps: "In the long term, we need a general mandatory vaccination against Corona." However, this would require sufficient knowledge about long-term side effects of the Corona vaccines and enough vaccine doses ready to make an offer to everyone.
Last week, Steffen Augsberg, member of the Ethics Council, said that he considered compulsory vaccination for certain occupational groups or areas of activity to be conceivable.
"Whether you actually need it, for example in intensive care units, depends on voluntary compliance," said the Giessen law professor.
Icon: The mirror
ire / fek / AFP / Reuters
