Corona Vaccination Only With the Corresponding Law?

The first groups in Germany will soon be vaccinated against the corona virus. But there is another hurdle. Experts strongly recommend that a corresponding law be passed beforehand.

The federal government wants to regulate the vaccination against the corona virus only by regulation. But according to an elaboration of the Scientific Services of the Bundestag, this is the wrong way to go. In the paper that is available to the German Press Agency, it is somewhat cumbersome: The prevailing view that the prioritization of certain population groups for access to vaccines requires a formal law that regulates at least the essential criteria for the distribution of a scarce vaccine, is to be agreed.

It is also pointed out that the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe ruled that the relevance of a measure to fundamental rights is particularly decisive for whether it should be regulated by a formal law.

The possibility of being vaccinated against the cause of the disease COVID-19 is of enormous relevance for the entire population, since everyone is equally affected by the risk of infection and the resulting restrictions in everyday life, the experts continue to note. The decision as to which population groups are initially to be preferred for the distribution thus shows a high level of general relevance to fundamental rights, according to the draft that the FDP parliamentary group vice-president Stephan Thomae had requested.

Bundestag must be involved

Thomae warned that the Bundestag should not be demoted to being just a spectator again. In a democracy the parliament has to decide on the essential questions. With the allocation of the vaccine we are distributing life chances in the truest sense of the word, said Thomae. That is why it is unacceptable that the government and above all Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) shy away from the debate in the Bundestag.

After the approval of a corona vaccine in Germany - due to the limited number of doses - population groups should first be vaccinated who have a significantly increased risk of serious or fatal disease courses. The German Ethics Council, the National Science Academy Leopoldina and the Standing Vaccination Commission at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) therefore issued recommendations on behalf of the Federal Government at the beginning of November as to who should be immunized immediately. These include old people, people with previous illnesses, as well as employees of health and safety authorities, police officers, firefighters, teachers and educators.

More than 23,000 new infections

This Saturday, the RKI reported 23,318 new infections within 24 hours - about 1,600 cases more than a week ago. With 483 new deaths in connection with the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen, the second-highest level was reached since the outbreak of the pandemic. To date, a total of 18,517 people in Germany have died of or with COVID-19. According to data from the Robert Koch Institute, a total of 1,153,556 people in Germany have been infected with the virus since the outbreak of the epidemic.