Today the question is whether there is a need for direct or indirect vaccination: In view of falling vaccination rates and increasing numbers of infections, politicians are discussing new methods - as they already exist in France or Italy.
The new debate about compulsory vaccination ...
German politicians argue about whether and how to increase the
pressure on unvaccinated people
. In other European countries there are already some measures in this direction - and protests against it. It is true that only Turkmenistan has officially introduced an official vaccination requirement for all adults worldwide (there is also - allegedly! - officially not a single Covid case to this day). But
France
is already one step further
than Germany: It has
compulsory vaccinations for health workers
and firefighters. And anyone who wants to visit amusement parks, fitness studios, restaurants or festivals in France or Italy in the near future needs a
special Covid certificate
- what vaccinated and convalescent people prefer, because otherwise you have to be constantly tested.
That also increases the pressure.
In Germany,
Chancellery Minister
Helge Braun
has now
opened the debate on whether it would not actually be right for unvaccinated people to reduce their contacts more than vaccinated people in the next wave.
That could "also mean that
offers such as restaurants, cinema and stadium visits for unvaccinated people would no longer be possible
because the residual risk is too high," he told the "Bild am Sonntag".
In the ZDF summer interview, CDU Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet said: »
I don't believe in vaccination
and do not believe in indirectly putting pressure on people to get vaccinated «. At the same time, he kept the back door open, saying that in autumn - if the vaccination rate was still far too low - "thought more" had to be done. For everything else, he referred to an upcoming prime ministerial conference.
Braun was objected to by the SPD, FDP and the left, while CSU boss Markus Söder is in favor of increasing the pressure by making the tests based on the French model permanently chargeable. The Green Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg,
Winfried Kretschmann
, says:
"I cannot rule out compulsory vaccination for all time"
. And Greens boss
Robert Habeck
states in the Funke newspapers: "You don't have to be vaccinated, but you can't expect everyone else to forego their freedom because you haven't been vaccinated." SPD health expert
Karl Lauterbach
is of the opinion that if the number of infections rises in the fall, one will "no longer make ends meet by equating the tested with the vaccinated and recovered." Rooms, where many people come together closely, to those who have recovered and who have been vaccinated «, since the number of false negative tests is too high.
Political debate about freedoms and compulsory vaccination: But no party for vaccinated people?
... and the fear of the political consequences
This debate about a direct or indirect vaccination requirement
will undoubtedly come to a head as the number of infections increases
- and turn parts of the population against each other. The conflict cannot be resolved, however: the minority of the unvaccinated invokes their personal rights of freedom. Those who do not get vaccinated endanger the personal freedom, physical integrity and freedom of movement of others. From an objective point of view, it is also like this: Anyone who has not been vaccinated or recovered, but has only been tested, is at greater risk at a major event or in a restaurant. The rapid tests in particular offer less security. Although all politicians want to prevent new lockdowns in the coming autumn and winter, an incidence of 200 is being discussed as a new limit value - but the more unvaccinated there are, the more seriously ill and dead there will be.And should the vaccinated really have to forego going to restaurants because of the unvaccinated?
In
France it
can already be seen what consequences a clear political course can have on this issue: there
the numbers for vaccination registrations have skyrocketed
after President Macron announced the future rules. In Italy, vaccination rates are similarly high - while in Germany they have been falling since the end of June. So does it really make sense to postpone this debate to autumn - as Armin Laschet wanted?
Politicians have regularly come too late in the pandemic
And that doesn't seem to be changing either: the latest example is the debate that has only just begun about tightening the rules for travelers returning from August - while German vacationers are already returning by the thousands from Spain, where the incidences are over 300, in some cases even twice as high .
The federal election campaign makes the initial situation more difficult than in France or Italy
: Quite a few in German politics are worried about adopting stricter rules, of
all things
, in the hot phase of the election campaign and thus strengthening the extremes or provoking new lateral thinker demos:
In France and Anti-vaccination demonstrations broke out in several cities in Italy at the weekend
- in France there were a total of more than 160,000 demonstrators, and in Italy thousands took to the streets. It is a minority, but radicalized group - in which many participants have no shame in sticking yellow Jewish stars on themselves and equating their fate as unvaccinated with the victims of the Holocaust.
Either way: This is one of those moments in politics when every kind of action or inaction has consequences.
Sitting out doesn't work.
It would be interesting to know what the
Chancellor
actually
thinks of the debate that her close colleague has triggered.
Armin Laschet under pressure: a courageous keep going
Washington and Beijing want to repair their relations
The tense relations between the superpowers USA and China have deteriorated further in the past few weeks: Washington accuses Beijing of being behind a major
hacker attack
on Microsoft. President Joe Biden warns US companies about the risks involved in doing business in Hong Kong. The dispute over
China's territorial claims in the South China Sea
is a constant topic - and at the first meeting of foreign ministers after Joe Biden took office, both sides had heatedly accused. Now the
US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman has
flown to the Chinese city of Tianjin to hold talks with
China's Deputy Foreign Minister Wang Yi
.
According to the statement, the US wants to use the meeting to create a framework for dialogue, to express its concerns about Chinese actions, but also to sound out common interests.
According to the Chinese statement, you want to make your own positions and security needs clear.
Although the two powers theoretically have a really big topic in common, at least when it comes to climate protection, one cannot expect much from the meeting given the miserable atmosphere.
"Malicious cyber activities": USA and EU accuse China of hacker attacks
SPIEGEL stories of the day: rich guests in hotels, guns killed in the United States
I would like to recommend two articles from the current issue of SPIEGEL.
First the
conversation with the boss of the Hamburg luxury hotel »Vier Jahreszeiten«
, which has reopened after six months of closure: Ingo C. Peters is a man full of stories about his own house and about
the wealthy clientele who like to spend 20,000 euros per week in leaving his house
- including young people.
This part of society has obviously not suffered from the corona crisis and is happy to accept that prices have just risen by 20 percent.
Peters says: “This is accepted without comment.
We are the niche in which money ultimately does not play a major role. "
Head of the »Vier Jahreszeiten«: »The Lamborghini density in our garage is currently higher than usual«
And then I recommend you
the report by my colleague Roland Nelles on gun violence in the USA
, which has risen dramatically again since the beginning of the pandemic - more and more children are among the victims.
But also among the perpetrators.
More than 11,000 people have already been shot this year
.
And yet it remains politically almost impossible for President Biden to do anything about it.
Dramatic increase in gun violence in the USA: "If you walk towards a house, expect someone to shoot you"
Loser of the day ...
... is the
European Union
.
Because these days it is threatened by a danger from within, which it has far too little to counter:
the EU member state
Poland
is in the process of disintegrating the EU from within.
What Poland's ruling party PiS is doing is worse for the Union than Brexit, because unlike the British, Poland's national conservatives do not want to leave the EU - but they no longer want to recognize the fundamental principles of the Union.
The government has restructured the judiciary in such a way that it is feared that it will no longer be independent of politics - and at the same time it no longer wants to recognize the overriding judgments of the EU courts.
In view of the importance of these events, far too little protest has been heard from Europe's capitals.
In a guest article in SPIEGEL, the Austrian political advisor Gerald Knaus now makes a radical, but thought-provoking proposal.
In order to prevent an "even deeper, existential crisis", the EU Commission would have to "impose an unprecedented fine on Poland" in the context of infringement proceedings.
Knaus writes: »You should not be guided by the previous infringement proceedings, but by the penalties that have been imposed on large corporations for violating competition law.
Against Microsoft this was more than 700 million euros in 2008 and more than 4 billion euros against Google in 2018. «You can read the entire guest commentary here:
The rule of law at risk: Fight for Poland!
The latest news from the night
Advisor to the President Top virologist Fauci sees USA: "on the wrong course" in the pandemic.
The infections are increasing drastically, at the same time many Americans are refusing the corona vaccination: Virologist Anthony Fauci warns of a new escalation in the USA.
The situation is "very frustrating".
Despite mass protests: France's parliament approves controversial vaccination requirements in the health sector.
Tens of thousands had recently demonstrated - nevertheless, the French parliament has decided to drastically tighten the corona rules.
Health and care workers are particularly affected.
+++ Olympic update +++ False start at the triathlon, boat blocks athletes' way into the water.
At the Olympics, the triathletes caused a sensation with a false start, a boat blocked some of the athletes from entering the water.
The Norwegian Kristian Blummenfelt later won gold.
The overview.
The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today
Éric Zemmour, mouthpiece of reactionary France: publicist, populist - President?
Small parties in the election campaign: With turnips and radishes towards the Bundestag
Production location Europe: New opportunity for the old continent
Afghanistan after NATO withdrawal: "There is no life under the Taliban"
I wish you a good start to this week.
Sincerely,
your Mathieu von Rohr
