The way to the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin-Wedding is like a way along the places of this pandemic. The Charité, where Christian Drosten developed the world’s first test to detect the novel corona virus. Then the Bundeswehr Hospital at the Nordhafen, where Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and other top politicians got the vaccine from Astrazeneca in order to set a good example.
This is followed by the Erika-Heß-Eisstadion, one of six Berlin vaccination centers before the RKI with its campus is reached, founded in 1891 as the Royal Prussian Institute for Infectious Diseases, headed by Robert Koch, who later won the Nobel Prize for Medicine, until 1904. The federal institute has never been in such demand, but also rarely under such pressure as in this pandemic.
Chancellor Angela Merkel, RKI President Lothar Wieler and Health Minister Jens Spahn, to whose area of responsibility the institute belongs, maintain the distance rules for the photo in front of the entrance portal in the most beautiful sunshine. Inside, Merkel takes a seat in the first row in an auditorium and listens to a lecture that gives her a mixed, difficult picture.
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In Germany, too, the number of infections is rising again, albeit at a low level – which is fueling the debate about compulsory vaccination.
Merkel ensures that new mutations can arise in all countries where the number of cases is now increasing again at a much steeper pace. The key question: How can you prevent mutations from occurring that the vaccines are not effective against? She learns that for control of the pandemic, herd immunity against more contagious variants such as the Delta variant, which is now also dominant in Germany, a vaccination rate of 85 percent for 12 to 59 year olds and 90 percent for over 60 year olds needs. Merkel will later speak of an impressive lecture.
Will Merkel leave office without further lockdown?
“This Robert Koch Institute has proven to be a great blessing, not just for Germany but for many in the world,” she said at the subsequent press conference. There is also no relaxation for the employees who have been working at full capacity for 18 months, and after difficult, sometimes chaotic months of crisis management, Merkel is also concerned with leaving office without having to send the country into lockdown again. “The virus doesn’t take a break, it doesn’t give us a break either,” Wieler sums it up.
Nevertheless, Merkel speaks of a “changed situation”. “The vaccination works.” This means that there are fewer intensive cases – which is why the federal government now wants to take the situation in the clinics into greater account if there are again restrictions. “The correlation has become completely different because of the vaccination,” says the Chancellor, referring to the relationship between incidences and hospitalizations. “You can live with higher incidences today without the health system being overwhelmed because of the vaccinations,” emphasizes Merkel. “The central question is therefore: How many people can be vaccinated?”
An urgent appeal from the Chancellor
Merkel then uses the visit to make an urgent appeal, she puts the handwritten notes she made aside and takes the prepared message to hand. She tells everyone who is still unsure whether they should be vaccinated: “A vaccination not only protects you, but also someone you are close to, who is important to you, who you love. A vaccination not only protects against serious illness and pain, but also against the stressful limitations of our everyday life. And the more we are vaccinated, the freer we will be again, the freer we can live again. “
As Federal Chancellor, she could “campaign for a vaccination out of deep conviction”. And it promotes vaccination sponsors among the population. Sometimes it helps if your own son or a colleague is at work to dispel concerns about vaccination; when the pros and cons of vaccinations are openly discussed in the association or in the community. “Therefore my request to everyone: Talk to each other, in the family, at work, in a football club, wherever people know and trust each other – and promote vaccination, because we need each other.”
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Merkel seems to have followed the TV address by French President Emmanuel Macron. Unlike him, however, she does not want health workers to be vaccinated, as is also being discussed in this country. In addition, it attracts with fewer restrictions for vaccinated and convalescent. “We do not intend to go the way that France has taken,” says Merkel. There will be no compulsory vaccination. Not even one for teachers to better secure school openings after the holidays.
In France, however, the pressure seems to be working: within a few hours of Macron’s speech on Monday evening at 8 p.m., 926,000 new vaccination appointments were made online in France, as the booking portal Doctolib announced.
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Merkel is initially relying on advertising – and explicitly praises offers such as vaccinations at Ikea in Berlin-Lichtenberg or at mosques. “There are no limits for your creativity.”
Spahn speaks of “vaccination to go” – on the market square, on the football field, at the church. “There are no more excuses: there is enough vaccine, appointments are easy to get.” Wieler emphasizes: “We have to succeed in getting the vaccine to the people.”
It is seen in the same way in the countries. Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) wants “low-threshold offers” especially for 16 to 30 year olds. He suggests vaccination campaigns in fast food restaurants, in pubs at weekly markets, in shopping malls or in youth centers. Talks with fast food chains, sports associations and youth organizations have already been held. As in other countries, there should also be “drive-in” vaccinations in Bavaria in the future.
Because everyone knows: Time is of the essence. Merkel admits that the target quotas are still a long way off, and that 84 percent of the first vaccinations are among those over the age of 60, but children under the age of 12 and those who are also not vaccinated for other reasons are also important can protect. Nationwide, 58.7 percent of the population have been vaccinated at least once, 43 percent have full vaccination protection.
Spahn shows the “instruments” to increase the vaccination pressure
Much more clearly than Merkel, Spahn makes it clear that there is no compulsory vaccination, but “a mandatory vaccination”. By the end of the summer, not only could everyone who want to have received an offer, they could also have been vaccinated twice. Then the tax-funded, free rapid tests could be dropped for those who don’t get vaccinated but want to have a beer in the pub.
France is already going this way, where there are no longer any free PCR tests, which, however, are often not free in this country either, depending on the federal state. “In a later phase of the pandemic (…) you can certainly think about it,” says Spahn at the end of the free rapid tests.
And an attempt could be made to further increase vaccination pressure by lifting most of the restrictions on vaccinated persons. That would be the second lever. For example, Söder is considering opening clubs and discos in Bavaria in autumn – possibly only for those who have been fully vaccinated and those who have recovered, in order to attract more young people to vaccinations.
Merkel is aware that such projects can have the effect of indirect compulsory vaccination – but the situation could soon be different again – if the rate of vaccination slows down. In the end, Spahn even quotes US President Joe Biden, who said that vaccination was a patriotic duty. “He’s right about that.” And he emphasizes: “If you don’t get vaccinated today, you shouldn’t complain if you’re not invited to the party tomorrow.”
