display
Berlin (dpa) - Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn (CDU) wants to check sanctions against people who illegally jostle for vaccinations against the new corona virus.
It is about whether sanctions could make sense, said Spahn on Friday in Berlin.
That should be examined in the Bundestag as part of the legislative procedure.
The Infection Protection Act already knows sanctions, such as fines.
Research by the German Press Agency revealed that people in at least nine federal states have already been vaccinated against the coronavirus who have not yet had their turn.
Local politicians, clergymen as well as firefighters and police officers came into play, even though they do not belong to the first priority group.
In most cases, those responsible had justified this with leftover vaccine doses, which otherwise would have had to be thrown away.
The order of the vaccinations is clearly regulated in the ordinance of the Federal Ministry of Health: First of all, people over 80 should be vaccinated in Germany, as well as professionals who have a particularly high risk of infection through their work in hospitals, medical practices, care facilities or vaccination centers.
They belong to the group with the highest priority.
The regulation only gives police officers a high priority, district administrators or other politicians are not listed separately.
display
It is true that for each dose - whether leftover or not - the same priority of the person to be vaccinated applies.
The handling of the other cans is not explicitly prescribed.
Spahn now wants to change that too.
"I will talk to the countries about whether we can regulate this a bit more binding," added Spahn.
In this way, the procedure in the vaccination center can be defined more precisely.
Any leftover vaccine could possibly go to fire fighters or police officers who would then have to be available quickly.
The German Foundation for Patient Protection had previously asked the federal government to sanction the violations.
"Again and again cases become known that people are vaccinated without authorization," said board member Eugen Brysch.
The vaccine ordinance actually aims at a fair allocation of the vaccine - "therefore it is incomprehensible that Jens Spahn does not include any sanctions for unauthorized vaccinations in his ordinance".
Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) also criticized the early vaccinations.
"Nobody should push ahead," he said on Friday in his government statement in the state parliament in Munich.
He also warned against letting third parties persuade you to give unauthorized vaccinations.
It should not be the case that on the one hand “an office, so to speak, is completely vaccinated instead of the over 80-year-olds who urgently need it and are waiting for it”.
display
Several local politicians had admitted in the days before that they had already been vaccinated against Corona.
The mayor of Halle in Saxony-Anhalt, Bernd Wiegand (independent), caused a stir.
At the weekend, following questions from MDR and the “Mitteldeutscher Zeitung”, he admitted that he and ten city councilors had already received a vaccination.
Also the district administrator of the Saalekreis, Hartmut Handschak (independent).
In North Rhine-Westphalia, several cases of local politicians had already become known in January who were vaccinated much earlier than planned.
Among other things, the 31-year-old mayor of Hennef, Mario Dahm (SPD), had himself vaccinated with a leftover dose.
The mayor of Wachtberg, Jörg Schmidt (CDU), has also already been vaccinated.
The former mayor of Hennef, Klaus Pipke, has also already been vaccinated.
In Bavaria, too, several local politicians had themselves vaccinated prematurely.
Both the district administrator of the Donau-Ries district and the mayor of the district town of Donauwörth received a vaccination from leftover doses in January.
Both politicians stated that they would make a different decision today.
The "Augsburger Allgemeine" had also revealed that the Augsburg Bishop Bertram Meier and his Vicar General Harald Heinrich had already been vaccinated.
display
In Lower Saxony, the district administrator of Peine and his deputy had themselves vaccinated - both have since apologized.
According to a report by the "Lausitzer Rundschau", Cottbus' mayor Holger Kelch and regulatory affairs officer Thomas Bergner (both CDU) were also vaccinated, although they were not on the list of priorities.
But it was not just politicians who received premature vaccinations everywhere.
In Koblenz, Rhineland-Palatinate, the fire brigade that operates the vaccination center there used the vaccine residues for its own staff.
Almost half of the 127 vaccinated were not part of the first priority group, the city said.
By the end of January, Hamburg had already vaccinated 102 firefighters and two police officers.
Employees of the crisis team and the health authority have already been vaccinated in the Hanseatic city, including the State Councilor for Social Affairs.
330 police officers were also vaccinated in the Stendal district in Saxony-Anhalt as part of a field test, and almost 400 police officers in Saxony received a vaccination earlier than permitted.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210212-99-418490 / 2