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Corona was still in the distant future when the federal government put up the campaign "Germany is looking for the vaccination pass".

Back then, in 2012, infection clusters with measles appeared.

Surveys showed a certain degree of vaccination fatigue against the highly contagious virus.

Many didn't even know if they had immunization at all.

It was a time when vaccination records had gone deep in the drawers.

Anyone who did not want to enter a yellow fever area in Africa had not needed the document with the WHO logo for a long time.

Now, in the second year of the pandemic, the yellow booklet is likely to become the most important, but also the most controversial document in the world.

The passport or other proof of vaccination could mean a partial return to normal.

The federal government has so far hesitated to announce concessions to immunized persons.

According to the "Handelsblatt", a model ordinance of the federal government already provides for quran-free travel.

A look at other countries shows that the more people are vaccinated, the more inevitable this question will be.

Should vaccinated people be allowed to enjoy more freedom?

Traveling, in restaurants, in the gym?

The vaccination card with the logo of the WHO led a shadowy existence for a long time

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org

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In authoritarian states, people have long been living in different corona worlds.

In China, for example, citizens have to have a QR code scanned on their cell phone at the entrance to restaurants.

They are only allowed to enter the restaurant when a green light appears.

The data on the risk of infection are fed from personal details and information from Beijing's comprehensive surveillance state.

In the United Arab Emirates, which are way ahead when it comes to vaccination, citizens can write an “E” or a star in their tracking app, for example to allow them to travel freely.

Green light and asterisks, they mean privileges in countries where there are no civil rights in the western sense.

Reasons for granting them are obvious: those who can move freely keep the economy alive.

But the great western democracies are remarkably reluctant to adopt such solutions.

Still.

Some say that privileges could be lacking in solidarity.

The state would then have totalitarian leverage against those unwilling to vaccinate, say the others.

Do constitutional states fail because of their own values ​​when opening up?

It could be the other way around.

"Individuals can rightly insist on their freedom again," says Claudia Wiesemann, director of the Institute for Ethics and History of Medicine at the University of Göttingen, in an interview with WELT.

But privileges are the wrong word.

Rather, immunity could mean the end of the circumcision of freedom.

"If the reason for the restriction ceases to exist, the state has another duty to justify it," says the doctor and medical ethicist, who was also a member of the German ethics council until the end of April 2020.

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Should it be reliably shown that vaccinated people are immune and no longer infect, the state must find an interim solution.

At least until everyone has been vaccinated who wants to and can for health reasons.

Not a permanent two-class society.

"But there is an obligation for a regulation that is based on individual rights of freedom and at the same time creates a balance for everyone who does not yet have access to the vaccine."

So far, vaccination champion Israel has shown what this can look like in western democracies: the government wants to have vaccinated half of the almost nine million inhabitants there by the end of March.

Those who have received the second injection can participate in everyday life again, including going to the cinema and eating in restaurants.

With a clear explanation: "Those who are no longer at risk of contracting the coronavirus should be able to do things that others who can still get sick cannot do", says Minister of Health Yuli Edelstein.

This “green pass” is also given to anyone who can present a current, negative corona test.

An opportunity to participate for anyone who has not yet received a vaccine.

These are questions that are often angry in many other European countries, but have so far been discussed primarily in theory.

Because not many have been vaccinated yet.

There is still no perspective as to when anyone who wants can get an injection.

Ethics expert Wiesemann emphasizes that this prospect is indispensable.

"The main political goal must remain a rapid vaccination of the population".

But just as the government imposed severe restrictions last March, there could soon be a temporary opening to part of the population.

Even with "limited and temporary inequalities."

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The conditions for this have long been created.

It is true that airlines' announcements that they will soon only be transporting vaccinated people have so far caused indignation.

First it was the Australian airline Qantas.

Recently, Ryanair launched a campaign that promised the best places for vaccinated people.

Slogan: “Jab and go” - something like “vaccinate and go”.

Often the negative reactions were: The debate was coming “too early”.

On the other hand, the international presentation of apps such as “Commonpass”, which makes it possible to present evidence of vaccinations or negative PCR tests when boarding, caused much less excitement.

Technology giant IBM already offers a similar app.

That would not be new: Even now, flight providers have the right to refuse to carry passengers.

The vaccination data is integrated in the app called "Commonpass" and can be shown at the airport counter

Source: Rido - stock.adobe.com the Commons Project

The course is already being set in Europe.

Brussels continues to push for a uniform solution for a vaccination certificate and travel rules.

Greece, largely dependent on tourism, has already presented an initiative for a vaccination passport.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis wrote according to “BILD” to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen: “People who are vaccinated should be able to travel freely.

This will also be a positive incentive to ensure that citizens are encouraged to get vaccinated. ”There is another Corona summit in Brussels next week.

Poland has already introduced entry without quarantine for vaccinated people almost unnoticed.

The Spanish government announced in December that it would set up a register for vaccination refusals to which the entire EU should have access.

The Danish Ministry of Health is working on an immunity passport.

In Switzerland, there is an increasing number of references in the public debate that the pandemic law expressly allows only those who have been vaccinated to be admitted to major events.

Estonia is working with the World Health Organization to develop an electronic solution for a passport.

So the solution comes up quietly.

Neither in France nor in Germany nor in England have the government so far wanted to speak so clearly about a return to normality as the Israeli health minister.

In England Prime Minister Boris Johnson brought up a “Freedom Pass” a few months ago, but has been reluctant to make any announcements ever since.

Communication is difficult, they say behind closed doors.

Probably also because the political explosiveness is currently great.

The number of vaccine skeptics is high in the large industrialized countries.

Almost everywhere it is at least a third of the population that refuses to be vaccinated, in Germany almost 40 percent.

Numbers that could decrease as more is known about the long-term consequences.

“We have not only observed in the USA that the fundamental rejection of government measures can also lead to attacks on the institutions of democracy itself,” says Wiesemann.

It seems clear: Governments in many places do not want to turn these groups against themselves, especially since vaccine skepticism goes hand in hand with a critical attitude towards the government.

Radical refusal to vaccinate can be seen everywhere in protests against the corona measures.

The US government has also so far held back with an “immunity pass”, which has been discussed but has not yet been adopted.

Italy imposes compulsory vaccination against measles

When it comes to resistance, there are many parallels in European countries.

After the campaign “Germany is looking for the vaccination pass”, Health Minister Jens Spahn announced in 2018 that vaccination against measles would be mandatory.

Italy also imposed a compulsory vaccination after accumulations of the contagious disease.

But there was fierce opposition in both countries.

As a member of the Ethics Council, Wiesemann advised the federal government against compulsory vaccination for measles.

Although the doctor and ethicist had no doubts about the dangerousness of the highly contagious virus and the effectiveness of the vaccination.

But those who refused to receive the measles vaccination are a very small group.

“Psychology shows that coercive measures always result in resistance.” This is another reason why the vaccination issue in the corona crisis could have become so big.

"It was already in the drawer." In Italy, the government has weakened the vaccination requirement.

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Are European countries heading for further polarization if citizens only show their vaccination certificate at check-in, in the restaurant or at the gym?

Wiesemann believes in the power of conviction in democracies.

"It's also about the good image of life that they create".

In other words, if a large number of vaccinated people regain their freedom, this could have an impact on the rest.

And the radical vaccinators?

A certain “dissidence” would have to withstand democracies, says Wiesemann.

A critical attitude always moves society forward.

But if people who refuse to be vaccinated want to work in a nursing home, the residents' right to health outweighs the freedom to choose a career.

"Certain disadvantages are to be expected of those who refuse vaccinations."