display

Before Corona, Christian Homburg led an almost normal life.

The 24-year-old spent his working hours in the office; he is a technical product designer at Thyssenkrupp.

In his spare time he met friends and went on vacation.

Homburg has a severe handicap, because of which he sits in a wheelchair and is looked after by assistants, but apart from that, his everyday life hardly differed from that of other people.

Until the start of the pandemic.

Since then he has been working at home in Warendorf in North Rhine-Westphalia and, apart from his carers, avoids any contact with people.

“Above all, I'm very scared and have to live completely isolated,” he says.

Homburg has had Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a serious and life-threatening disease, since birth.

His muscles shrink and his lung volume is reduced to 20 percent.

An infection with the corona virus could be fatal.

His great hope is vaccination.

But politics seems to have forgotten him and other people affected.

display

Because he is cared for at home and not in a facility, Homburg only belongs to the third group of people who should be given priority vaccination according to the vaccination ordinance.

This group includes people over 60 and the chronically ill.

In the worst case, Homburg has to wait another six months for his vaccination.

And he is not alone: ​​According to the Federal Statistical Office, 3.3 million people in Germany are cared for at home - four times as many as are in care facilities.

Homburg is now resisting the classification of the vaccination ordinance.

With a petition that more than 56,000 people had signed by Wednesday, he called on politicians, and in particular Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU), to prioritize people with disabilities in group 1 or 2.

“It cannot be that we are disregarded,” he says.

Groups 1 and 2 have so far mainly included people who live or work in hospitals or care facilities, as well as people over 70, people with intellectual disabilities and their contact persons.

display

Homburg's anger at politics has been surging since the pandemic began.

“From the start, disabled people who are cared for at home were forgotten.

Measures taken by politics have not reached us for a long time, ”he says.

In fact, there was a lack of protective equipment and rapid tests for outpatient care, and FFP2 masks were initially only available for people with widespread chronic diseases, but not for rare diseases such as muscular dystrophy.

“When we were not taken into account in the vaccination strategy, it broke the barrel,” says Homburg.

In the vaccination ordinance of the federal government, group 3 mainly lists people with chronic diseases.

display

These include obesity, kidney and liver diseases, HIV and rheumatism.

People with neuromuscular disorders, which include muscular dystrophy, are not mentioned.

Homburg says that the health authorities only announced that they belong to group 3 when those affected asked.

“Individuals affected have complained against it and have been partially successful with it.

But I wanted an improvement for all people in need of care whose immune defenses would be too weak to defeat Corona, ”says Homburg.

Many would have given up before, there was no political support.

With the petition, those affected become visible again, says Homburg.

No free masks for severely disabled people

The federal and state disability officers also brought the topic into focus with a joint declaration.

They called for the vaccination ordinance to be adapted so that people with physical disabilities are given priority vaccination.

In addition, the current restriction to one contact person should be lifted.

"For many people with disabilities, there is uncertainty as to how they will be taken into account in the vaccination prioritization," says Matthias Rösch, state representative in Rhineland-Palatinate and spokesman for the Commissioners' Conference.

"The federal vaccination ordinance must be improved here in order to achieve more safety for people with disabilities." The declaration also criticizes the fact that disabled people are not given enough consideration in measures that are intended to protect vulnerable groups in addition to the vaccination strategy.

So far, these protective measures have mainly been implemented for care facilities and hospitals.

Free FFP2 masks are primarily provided to people over 60 years of age, who have asthma, cancer, or cardiovascular disease.

People with diabetes or trisomy 21 also get free masks.

The federal government's commissioner for the disabled, Jürgen Dusel, says: “For example, the supply of FFP2 masks must be significantly expanded.

In addition, people with an increased risk of infection and their assistants and nurses should be entitled to rapid tests. ”According to Dusel, vaccination, protective mask and test regulations should complement each other and form a sensible and comprehensible overall concept.

That is not yet the case.

Homburg sees the pandemic as a step backwards in terms of inclusion.

Seniors and people in care facilities are addressed;

However, people under 60 years of age who are cared for at home are not given sufficient consideration.

display

“It is absolutely correct that you vaccinate first in care facilities.

But we shouldn't be too far behind. ”In other countries, for example in Austria, people with severe disabilities who are cared for at home belonged to the first vaccination group together with their assistants.

The 24-year-old cannot do without contact entirely - on the contrary.

Because he needs assistance day and night, he employs nine nurses with whom he is in physical contact.

This enables him to lead a self-determined life, but also leads to a constant risk of infection.

"In care facilities the contacts are even higher, but otherwise my situation is comparable."

Vaccination by individual decision

After the petition had found its first supporters, the Standing Vaccination Commission spoke up.

It now recommends that the federal government take individual decisions.

The government has not yet responded.

Homburg supports the move, but sees no solution for everyone.

"Many do not have the stamina, strength or time to persistently push through an individual decision," he says.

Parents with severely disabled children, for example, would have enough to do with care, jobs and protection from the risk of infection;

such people would continue to be disadvantaged.

Homburg would find it better to prioritize people according to their level of care.

You could, he says, include the highest levels of care, i.e. four and five, in the first vaccination group.

This option would also be supported by the federal and state representatives.

In the meantime Homburg is in contact with some politicians, especially state parliamentarians from North Rhine-Westphalia.

With his petition he wants to reach 70,000 signatures, he hopes that it will soon be there.

"I have the feeling," he says, "something is going on."