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Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder starts a debate that questions an earlier promise: there will be no vaccine light for the corona vaccine. Suddenly, an exception should apply to nursing staff. But how useful is it?
In fact, it was said that there would be no mandatory vaccination in the fight against the corona pandemic. Health Minister Jens Spahn had repeatedly emphasized in the past that vaccination against the virus was voluntary. This promise is being debated again now. At least for certain professional groups, an obligation should be established, demands Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder, who complains that there is an “excessive refusal to vaccinate” among nursing staff in nursing homes and for the elderly.
The willingness to vaccinate is “theoretically high, in practice it is put into perspective,” Söder criticized after a cabinet meeting. It’s about protecting the elderly. Therefore, “we should consider making a contribution here.” According to the “Süddeutscher Zeitung”, Söder has already contacted the Ethics Council and asked for suggestions “if and for which groups a compulsory vaccination would be conceivable”. Getting vaccinated should be seen as a civic duty, the CSU chief said.
In fact, studies among medical personnel suggest that skepticism about the corona vaccine is greater than expected. In a non-representative nationwide survey conducted by the German Society for Internal Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine, 2,305 people from the medical sector were asked about their willingness to get vaccinated between December 3 and 12. The result: only about half of the nursing staff want to get vaccinated right away. With doctors, the disposition is at least 73 percent.
Nursing staff under widespread suspicion
Thus, willingness to get vaccinated against Covid-19 is highly correlated with that of a flu vaccine. In an online survey of hospital staff (OKaPII study) The willingness to vaccinate among doctors for influenza vaccination is also much higher than among nurses. Even the numbers are roughly the same: while willingness to vaccinate among nurses at 46.7 percent in 2019/2020 is just below the Corona survey values, it is slightly higher among physicians with a 79.3 percent compared to 73 percent. .
However, the German Association for Nursing Professions strictly rejects a vaccination requirement. “That would be completely wrong,” says press officer Anja Kathrin Hild ntv.de. “To speak of mandatory vaccination in the current situation when there is not even enough vaccine for all volunteers is counterproductive.” Furthermore, surveys on vaccination readiness are not reliable. “The numbers are not representative,” Hild says. To this day, very little is known about the reasons for those who reject the vaccine.
In this way, the nurses would be under general suspicion, complains Hild. On the other hand, it is more important to find out where information is still needed. “A well-prepared awareness campaign is more effective than mandatory vaccination.” Instead, strong moral pressure is exerted on the nursing staff.
The trend is towards greater acceptance
In some care centers, staff are already threatened with consequences if they do not voluntarily get vaccinated against Covid-19. A letter from Brandenburger Pflegedienst Henningsdorf GmbH is circulating on social media, in which it says that vaccination is voluntary, but has a special duty of care towards customers of care. “Since unvaccinated employees pose a health hazard to clients, consequences under labor law are possible,” he says. The head of the nursing service, Herbert Weiss, told the “Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung” that the nursing service is responsible for the risk groups that it serves on a daily basis and that it must ensure both occupational safety and protection against infections.
The fact is that a willingness to vaccinate of just under 50 percent is too low to contain the infection process. Even with a 100% working vaccine, the vaccination density “would not be sufficient to stop the spread of the virus,” write the authors of the “Cosmo” study from the University of Erfurt. But the new figures also show that the willingness of nurses to vaccinate for the last time rose to almost 60 percent in December and January, after having fallen steadily in the previous months. So the trend is more towards greater acceptance of the vaccine.
The coalition partner is also opposed to Markus Söder’s initiative. SPD Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil said in the “early start” of ntv that speculating about mandatory vaccinations at this time “is prohibited.” It also calls for more vigorous promotion of vaccination among nursing staff and medical professionals. “Above all, I want the acceptance of vaccination. Now it’s a matter of explaining that vaccination is important,” Heil said. There are also criticisms of the CDU: “I am not a fan of mandatory vaccines,” says President Friedrich Merz. The numbers show how fatal a vaccination requirement would be: According to the Cosmo study, only 37 percent of all respondents would agree to a vaccination requirement.
