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Tuesday, January 12, 2021
“Gradual relief”
Doctors doubt the closure will end in January
Despite the stricter crown measures, German medical officials consider it unlikely that the lockdown can be lifted at the end of the month. Hope now rests on the rapid vaccination of the population. However, constitutional lawyers criticize the concept of government.
German medical officials doubt that strict state restrictions on the crown can be lifted on January 31. “I’m not really sure we can end the shutdown at the end of the month,” said Ute Teichert, president of the public health service physicians professional association, of the Funke media group. Judging by the current number of infections, by then it will be difficult to fall below the expected 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants per week. Also, it is not enough if this mark is reached once. “The contagion numbers must be kept that low in the long term.” One thing is for sure: “In any case, relaxation will only come gradually and not all at once.”
To curb the high number of infections, stricter rules have been implemented in all federal states since Monday. This includes stricter contact restrictions – your own home can only meet with one other person. In counties with more than 200 new infections per 100,000 residents within seven days, you should not be allowed to move more than 15 kilometers from your place of residence without good reason.
The prime minister of North Rhine-Westphalia and candidate for the presidency of the CDU, Armin Laschet, asked to understand that politics did not know how things would continue after the shutdown until January 31. “The question of how things will go concerns us all. But we don’t know.” In a pandemic there will be no concept until the end of the year, he told the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”.
But there are also hopeful signs: a good two weeks after the start of vaccinations with the first corona vaccine from Biontech and Pfizer approved in the EU, delivery of the second approved vaccine from the American company Moderna to the federal states and their vaccination centers. Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn expects two million doses for Germany by the end of the quarter and 50 million doses throughout the year.
Hope for the Astrazeneca vaccine
The president of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV), Andreas Gassen, noted that a large number of vaccines would soon be possible in medical practices. “We will be able to use various vaccines in the foreseeable future that can also be vaccinated in medical practices,” said Gassen of the “Rheinische Post.” In addition to the Moderna vaccine, which has already reached Germany, it also includes the Astrazeneca vaccine.
SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach also highlighted the importance of the Astrazeneca vaccine for the vaccination strategy. He was expecting a quick approval from the EU drug agency EMA. “Every day counts,” he told the “Rheinische Post.” “If there are any complications in the application, I would like to consider a quick German solo effort with emergency approval.” At 70 percent, the vaccine is somewhat less effective than the Biontech and Moderna vaccines, but it is by no means a poor product. “Without Astrazeneca we would probably only be able to vaccinate a little more than around 20 million people in the first half of the year. That is not enough in the fight against the strong second wave and a possibly much more dangerous mutation of the virus.”
Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder complained that nursing staff in nursing homes and old people’s homes were too reluctant to vaccinate. Therefore, the German ethics council should make proposals “if and for which groups compulsory vaccination would be conceivable”, said the head of the CSU of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. “Getting vaccinated should be considered a civic duty.”
Reprimand the regulation of vaccination
Meanwhile, constitutional lawyers criticized the Corona Vaccination Ordinance because it did not have a sufficient constitutional legal basis in the form of parliamentary law. According to “Welt”, the constitutional lawyer Anna Leisner-Egensperger from the University of Jena wrote in a statement to the Bundestag that there is no constitutional basis for the vaccination sequence specified in the ordinance. According to “Bild”, legal expert Andrea Kießling from the Ruhr University in Bochum also complains that there is currently no provision “authorizing the Federal Ministry of Health to determine the sequence of vaccinations”.
In view of the 25,000 Covid-19 patients in German clinics, the German Hospital Association once again warned against system overload. “With around 6000 patients needing intensive treatment, whose care includes significantly higher staff resources, a high degree of stress has been placed on the system as a whole, in many on-site clinics it has already been overcome in some cases “said managing director Georg Braun of” Rheinische Post “. Even the normal course of illness, such as heart attacks, accidents, and operations, ties intensive care capabilities to a greater extent. To ensure the efficiency of medical care in times of the corona pandemic, lockdown measures and encounter restrictions are definitely necessary.
