Mr. Lilie, after long discussions, the Bundestag has not been able to bring itself to a general obligation to vaccinate. In the debate, you have always advocated compulsory vaccination. How disappointed are you?
Kim Bjorn Becker
Editor in Politics.
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I have always seen the institution-related vaccination requirement, which has been in effect in hospitals and nursing homes since mid-March, as a first step in the right direction towards general vaccination.
That was also the sensible announcement of politics.
The fact that vaccination is compulsory for everyone – or at least for a large number – was always an important argument for those employees who felt they were treated unequally.
The fact that politicians are now abandoning this important instrument for far-sighted combating of the pandemic is a fatal signal in several respects.
How is the decision received in the numerous Diakonie institutions?
The nursing staff have been the water carriers of the crisis for more than two years, and an incredible amount has stuck with them.
They really gave their all, many are ill themselves, some are still suffering from the consequences.
There were dead among them too.
And then politicians first introduce the institution-related vaccination requirement with a lousy law and now follow up with the decision in the Bundestag with an insoluble contradiction.
In the homes, for example, it is now permitted for unvaccinated visitors to go to the residents' rooms, while unvaccinated employees are no longer allowed to work on the wards.
That can no longer be conveyed to anyone.
Many of our employees feel fooled.
Does this compulsory vaccination now have to be abolished?
No, we should still hold on to her.
It remains the case that nurses, for example, work with people who are particularly at risk and therefore bear a special responsibility.
However, it is now almost impossible for the heads of the institutions to represent this position convincingly.
In this way, politics robs of all credibility those of all people who want to enforce their rules in practice.
It is therefore all the more important that the health authorities first help to ensure security of supply.
Because the already tight personnel situation is dramatic in many places after two years of crisis.
We urgently need a new initiative for general vaccination.
Parliament needs to wake up.
It's not the first time standards have changed. For a long time, the goal of corona policy was not to overload the health system. When that was achieved, the Minister of Health called the number of deaths too high.