The chairman of the Standing Vaccination Commission (STIKO), Thomas Mertens, rejects a general corona vaccination requirement.

"It divides society, there is too much pressure," he told the "Stuttgarter Nachrichten" and the "Stuttgarter Zeitung".

He relies on further persuasion and education on vaccination.

In the event of compulsory vaccination, it is not necessarily to be expected that the "targeted goal can really be achieved," added Mertens.

A legal obligation to vaccinate is only worth as much as it can be effectively implemented.

"What do you do with those who refuse?" asked the virologist.

These people would probably not be swayed by a fine.

In addition, even a quick vaccination cannot break the current corona wave.

At the same time, Mertens defended the work of the STIKO in the pandemic.

"We have not made any substantive errors, we do not decide on the basis of opinions, but on the basis of a careful evaluation of all available data and knowledge," he said.

Germany allows itself “the luxury of an independent panel of experts” that makes recommendations without regard to the interests of politics or the pharmaceutical industry. What STIKO decides does not suit everyone. "But there is a big difference between evidence and felt truth," said Mertens.

STIKO and its chairman have repeatedly been criticized for their cautious recommendations for vaccinations of children or pregnant women and for the timing of booster vaccinations, which are late in international comparison.

Mertens told the FAZ at the beginning of December last year that he would "not have his seven-year-old child vaccinated [against the corona virus] right now".

There was then a debate about child vaccinations, Mertens regretted his statement: "The decision about vaccination is really a very personal matter, and that is also reflected in our current vaccination recommendation.

It was probably the only mistake I made at the time that I said anything personal at all," he told Die Welt.