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Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) wants to do it, Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) also has plans, but what about the Chancellor?
Unfortunately, at her press conference on the upcoming lockdown, Angela Merkel was only asked when she was actually expecting corona vaccinations in Germany, but not whether she would be vaccinated right away.
This is exactly what Söder, who like Spahn wants to set a good example, had recently suggested: That the Chancellor and her entire cabinet should immediately get vaccinated in a publicly effective manner.
The vaccination recommendation should not only be announced, but also embodied, said Söder.
To get the message across: The serum is safe, no one has to worry about risks and side effects.
Merkel has so far let this opportunity for such a confidence-building measure slip by.
At her latest press conference, the Chancellor only announced that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in Amsterdam would approve the first vaccine for the EU by December 29th at the latest.
In January it should also start in Germany.
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As far as the safety of the vaccine tested in the fast-track procedure is concerned, she relies fully on the concentrated medical expertise of the approval agency, said Merkel: "I trust the European Medicines Agency and the expertise that governs it."
The only problem is that this trust is not shared by a clear majority of citizens.
On the contrary, the willingness to be vaccinated against corona has never been as low as it is now.
According to a special study published at the end of last week for the “Covid-19 Snapshot Monitoring” (Cosmo) at the University of Leipzig, only every second German citizen is “ready” or “rather ready” for the injection.
In April it was 79 percent.
The proportion of those in favor of a state vaccination requirement fell from 73 to 37 percent during the same period.
The researchers clearly identify a skepticism towards the vaccines themselves as the main cause.
Medical staff of all people are particularly cautious
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Decisive for the lower approval is not an indirect protest against the government's corona policy, even if approval for this has fallen significantly again in the past few weeks.
Most also do not believe that protection is not necessary because Covid-19 would be less dangerous than claimed.
It is actually a lack of confidence.
And the announcement in November that the vaccines developed should be highly effective without causing side effects - according to current knowledge - could not change the skepticism that has been growing steadily since April.
The Cosmo researchers concluded that confidence in safety is at its lowest level since the beginning of the survey and urgently recommends confidence-building measures such as additional information or a vaccination campaign.
But of all doctors, nurses and other health professions who should have a particularly high interest in protecting themselves and others, the willingness to vaccinate is even below the national average.
This clearly does not correspond to the expectations of all those interviewed who were in favor of a large majority in favor of the health professions being given preference in the allocation of the vaccine, not risk groups such as the elderly or those in need of care.
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The Cosmo study does not answer exactly what makes medical staff so reluctant, but apparently many are hoping for a kind of free rider effect: 48 percent of doctors or nurses assumed that most of their work colleagues would get vaccinated.
So there may be hope that the actions of others will help you avoid the vaccination.
The sobering finding of the Cosmo study as a whole is: Even with a perfectly effective vaccine, the current willingness to vaccinate would not be enough to stop the spread of the virus.
Source: WORLD infographic
The results of the Cosmo surveys must give politicians food for thought - not only when it comes to vaccination.
The joint research project, in which the University of Erfurt, the Robert Koch Institute and the Federal Center for Health Education work together, has been asking citizens every two weeks since the beginning of the pandemic, for example, about how likely they think it is to infect themselves , or whether they consider the Corona requirements to be appropriate or excessive.
The surprising finding: Despite the recent highs in the number of infections and deaths, more and more people feel, as it were, invulnerable.
In the most recent survey in the first week of December, only 27.4 percent of the respondents described it as “extreme or rather likely” to get infected.
Four weeks earlier it was almost 33 percent.
At the same time, the group of those who describe an infection as "extreme or rather unlikely" has increased.
It rose from just under 35 to most recently 41 percent.
Source: Infographic WELT / Jörn Baumgarten
“It seems to be getting used to it,” says the Erfurt professor for health communication, Cornelia Betsch, whose team is collecting the Cosmo data.
Overall, people have now got used to the pandemic and there is an increasing “illusion of protection”.
On the one hand, this could have something to do with the corona restrictions themselves: "A decrease in potentially dangerous situations (due to the partial lockdown) could be responsible for less fear and worry," the study says.
But Betsch also diagnosed “pandemic fatigue” weeks ago.
"Pandemic wearies estimate the risk of infection for themselves lower, inform themselves less and protect themselves less."
According to Betsch, society slipped into the pandemic and the protracted fight against it almost unprepared.
While many politicians are trying to compare it to a marathon run and warn to hold out on the last few meters, the health communicator prefers to compare it with a long-haul flight.
Pilots, she says, are trained for years and specially trained to maintain full attention even on a long flight.
The constant reaction has to get tired, in the case of Corona, for example, when a case occurs in the children's school class, new requirements constantly arise in everyday life, children suddenly need to be looked after again or questions have to be decided how to deal with holidays or family visits .
“Everyone is fed up with it,” says Betsch, and that is also normal.
According to the researchers, the younger generation in particular is suffering even more from the crisis than the elderly.
According to Betsch, they lack the resilience, that is, the coping strategy to deal with setbacks.
Older people have already overcome other crises and have gained the experience and confidence that things will go on.
For many younger people, however, Corona is the first big impact, and that even in the supposedly "best time of life".
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The question now is how you can still persevere and not surrender to fatigue, anger or frustration without protection.
One consequence, as other surveys of the past week also suggest, is apparently the growing desire for government action.
According to the Cosmo study, before the decision on Sunday about new corona restrictions, 60 percent of those surveyed were in favor of “a hard lockdown should be implemented as soon as possible” in order to significantly reduce the number of cases.
Only 29 percent refused, the rest were undecided.
53 percent also spoke out in favor of restricting personal freedom rights.
The proportion of respondents who describe the Corona measures as "excessive", on the other hand, has been constant at around 27 percent for weeks.
Virologists and economists miss the German long-term strategy
The lockdown is pending and all hope is that it will finally bear fruit.
But virologists and economic experts criticize the lack of a long-term strategy.
Source: WELT / Alina Quast and Leonie von Randow