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Dahmen demands the 2G rule in the event of an escalation of the epidemic situation
Photo: Ying Tang / NurPhoto / imago images
SPIEGEL
: The fourth corona wave is building up, how do you see autumn?
Janosch Dahmen
: I am very concerned.
The vaccination campaign is stalling enormously, and the great pressure of expectation towards normality has meant that many protective measures are no longer effectively implemented.
The result: In the past few weeks we have allowed a dynamic in the spread of infection that would have been avoidable.
It also shows that the transmission protection that vaccinated people have is reduced six months after vaccination.
I expect the situation to worsen in autumn.
SPIEGEL
: Nevertheless, Corona seems to play a subordinate role in the election campaign.
Why?
Dahmen
: Many of the campaigning politicians wrongly believe that voters do not appreciate being confronted with the facts of the current situation.
But people notice when politicians avoid unpopular decisions before an election.
Jens Spahn has stopped his weekly press conference with the RKI boss during the election campaign, although the situation now requires more political communication again.
The federal government is currently tending to conceal the seriousness of the situation, to delay measures and to talk about a better situation than is actually available.
No one wants to openly tell people shortly before the election: It could get worse again.
SPIEGEL
: But that also applies to your own party, the Greens.
Dahmen
: Health politicians from all parties are currently having a hard time getting through with warnings.
But we should be aware of the pandemic policy: It's about human life, not about votes.
But I can already see that my party is very emphatically calling for a more consistent approach.
In the Triell, Annalena Baerbock did not rule out compulsory vaccinations for certain professional groups, but Scholz and Laschet did.
SPIEGEL
: Your party leader Robert Habeck just emphasized in the SPIEGEL duel with Markus Söder that the government's approach to the corona crisis was correct in the "total".
Dahmen
: Robert Habeck was not referring to the current situation.
But of course there were also similarities in the assessment of what was happening.
But in the consequences that are drawn from it, the political differences become apparent.
The federal government's crisis management is absolutely inadequate.
SPIEGEL
: What do you mean?
Dahmen
: The federal government would like to move away from a nationwide uniform approach.
Then there are at least 16 different standards and measures.
This would require exactly the opposite.
We need uniform, incidence-independent 3G measures throughout Germany as a basis for the duration of the epidemic situation.
Wherever it escalates, as is currently the case in North Rhine-Westphalia, 2G measures are needed.
By the way: Baerbock also spoke out in favor of 2G and Laschet against.
SPIEGEL
: Do you think a lockdown for unvaccinated people is possible?
Dahmen
: The 2G rule is something like that.
There must of course be exceptions for children and for people who cannot be vaccinated for compelling medical reasons.
But in essence it is about protective measures that are only taken when people endanger others.
The danger posed by the unvaccinated is greater than the danger posed by the vaccinated.
It is therefore logical to start with protective measures with unvaccinated people.
SPIEGEL
: Who should check this in practice?
Dahmen
: It's primarily about access to restaurants, bars, cinemas, theaters, but also when traveling.
There is control anyway, the switch from 2G to 3G would be relatively unproblematic there with the Corona warning app.
However, we should also be pragmatic when it comes to the question of controls: it cannot be that the government does not want to introduce the 3G rule for trains because it supposedly cannot be controlled there.
SPIEGEL
: One of the great political promises currently being made is that those who are fully vaccinated will no longer have to fear restrictions.
Isn't that also due to the election campaign?
Dahmen
: In view of the high mutation rates, this cannot be 100 percent promised.
We cannot rule out new, more dangerous mutations.
Based on the current situation, however, it can be said that vaccinated people pose a lower risk.
This is why new restrictions are wrong for vaccinated people, while they sometimes still have to be maintained for unvaccinated people or, as is currently the case, have to be taken recently.
SPIEGEL
: Your candidate for chancellor Annalena Baerbock does not expect any restrictions in the fall, but virologist Christian Drosten does.
Where did this discrepancy come from?
Dahmen
: The point is: it's still up to us how bad the fourth wave will be.
In the remaining four weeks until autumn, however, progress has to be made, especially with regard to the speed of vaccinations.
Because of the sluggish application of the vaccination by the federal government, I have great doubts about it.
SPIEGEL
: The vaccination level is stagnating in Germany.
Why is politics not applying more pressure?
Dahmen
: The federal government has entered a phase of perplexity.
She believed that just by announcing the end of free trials, she could build so much pressure that unvaccinated people would decide to vaccinate.
As a doctor, I am not convinced of this.
When it comes to medical issues in particular, people are highly irrational.
The sleeve-up campaign was good at the beginning because it mobilized people who are generally open to vaccinations.
But now we have to convince instead of just mobilizing.
The campaign does not do that.
SPIEGEL
: What do you suggest?
Dahmen
: Doctors' practices have the problem that they cannot immediately vaccinate people who come to their practice for other medical reasons because the vaccination doses are still only given in six-bottle bottles.
You invest time in education and often convince people of the vaccination, but you cannot say: take a seat outside and we will vaccinate you directly.
You'll have to call people back on a week or two later.
By then, that thread of trust has been lost again.
We have to make sure that pharmacies also fill the vaccine as single doses.
SPIEGEL
: Should society be considerate until the youngest have had a chance to get vaccinated?
Dahmen
: Yes.
It is a great injustice that families have had to restrict themselves so much throughout the pandemic.
Now the mood has shifted and the focus is on the message that children don't get so badly ill.
Even if exposure is likely due to high incidences in the young age groups and inadequate protection concepts in schools.
The protection in schools is not enough.
I see a real danger in this.
SPIEGEL
: Which ones?
Dahmen
: Up to five percent of children have long-term symptoms, i.e. longer than four weeks.
It is a brutal burden on families.
Even if the child becomes completely healthy again and has no long-term consequences.
In addition, 0.1 to 0.3 percent of children have to be treated in hospital.
We have no bottlenecks in the children's intensive care beds because children have to go to the intensive care unit less often.
Our bottleneck is with normal children's hospital beds.
Because they are unprofitable, they are totally underfunded.
Even a small increase in the number of children who have to be treated in hospital pushes our health system in the field of pediatrics to the limit.
Even if all children are completely healthy again.
SPIEGEL
: Will this pandemic ever end?
Dahmen
: I am convinced that it will end. The virus will still be around, but it will be back to normal as it was before the pandemic. But due to the hesitation we talked about, I assume that this will not be the case in Germany until next spring. I think much earlier is improbable, and it is dishonest to promise a Freedom Day now.