Vaccine skepticism: Politicians lack the guts to ask for vaccinations

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A good 40 percent of Cologne residents who should be vaccinated with the AstraZeneca corona vaccine recently canceled their appointments at short notice.

“Only”, as the local WDR adds in a report.

Because before, when police officers and employees of the public order office were not taken care of, it was even more than 75 percent.

Something is going really wrong right now, in the cathedral city and probably far beyond.

First there were no approved vaccines in the Corona crisis, then not enough doses produced, and ultimately not enough appointments.

And when all of this is finally there, is there a lack of will on the part of many citizens?

In individual cases, it is important to emphasize that there may be many good reasons why a citizen rejects the AstraZeneca product or any corona vaccination in general.

The majority of those who refuse to act behave without solidarity

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But not in breadth.

The Astra vaccine is also highly effective; the side effects that are comparatively common with it are almost always of a temporary nature.

And anyone who wants to know that can know that too.

That is why it has to be said so clearly: The vast majority of those who refuse are profoundly dissolute.

That is what those who refuse to receive the measles vaccination do - because they not only forego self-protection, but also impair the protection of third parties.

But there will be no lockdown due to measles.

Those who block the corona vaccination help ensure that the devastating lockdown that plunges so many people into misery lasts longer than is absolutely necessary.

In the best case, the vaccine refuser is a free rider who leaves it to others to contribute to the establishment of the herd immunity they long for and prefers to slim down for themselves.

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And depending on how many like-minded people he has, he may even ensure that herd immunity is not achieved for the foreseeable future.

In the case of the more aggressive virus mutants, this may only occur at very high vaccination rates.

It is not at all unlikely that they will be missed: a negative spiral can all too easily arise, and a scenario in which a lack of citizenship is contagious is all too easy, according to the motto: If the neighbor or colleague does not get vaccinated, why should i do it then?

Ideas for forcing refusers to join have long been around.

As early as December, a member of the Ethics Council suggested that those infected who do not want to be vaccinated should be placed at the bottom of the queue for artificial ventilation.

Kretschmer no longer wants to rule out the introduction of mandatory vaccinations

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And the economist Michael Hüther brought up the proposal to withdraw insurance cover for those who refused to vaccinate in the event of a corona infection.

Michael Kretschmer, on the other hand, the Prime Minister of Saxony, currently no longer wants to rule out the introduction of mandatory vaccinations.

Maybe it would help to just talk Tacheles.

When the vaccination campaign started a good two months ago, there was no shortage of outraged people who were upset that people who had been vaccinated may simply have their civil rights back and want to go their own way.

The desire for normalcy was denigrated as “extras” and “privileges”.

Caritas President Prelate Peter Neher spoke of a "violation of the principle of solidarity".

And with Norbert Walter-Borjans, too, the illiberal instincts were intact: "We must not give up the solidarity that we are currently showing in so many places," said the SPD leader.

Now, on the other hand, those who otherwise so like to demand solidarity from third parties are strangely lazy.

Even Walter-Borjans has apparently not yet put his horror at the lack of citizenship in his home in the Rhineland, if it exists at all, on the record.

There is also little to be heard in this direction from Angela Merkel and Jens Spahn.

It's bizarre: You dare to paralyze half the country for months, but you don't have the guts for an unequivocal request to vaccinate.

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Instead, the Chancellor has adopted the favorite word “vaccination offer” from the Minister of Health.

The message is clear: Everything remains nicely non-binding, nobody should feel pushed or even challenged.

The fatal consequences of this can already be seen in Cologne.

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