Lawmakers voted against the bill Thursday, which, if passed, would make it mandatory to vaccinate people over the age of 60, a humiliating defeat for Chancellor Olaf Solz, who has long called for the bill. . Initially, the government’s plan was a broad mandate to cover anyone over the age of 18. When this failed to attract enough support, he raised his age to over 50 and then to over 60. The deputies rejected it with 378 votes against 296. Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, who has also been a staunch supporter of a mandate, arguing that vaccination rates in Germany among the elderly are too low, said on Friday he could not rule out the need to reintroduce restrictions such as mask use, especially in the autumn. , when the virus is expected to erupt. About 76% of Germans are fully vaccinated, below the 80% government target. Of particular concern are the 2 million – about 12% – of those over the age of 60 who have not been vaccinated, a number that Lauterbach has repeatedly stated is about three to four times higher in this age group than in other comparable countries. such as the United Kingdom. A spokesman for German hospitals said on Friday that the daily death rate from Covid-19 – which ranged between 200 and 300 for weeks – was “frighteningly high”, especially when it was known that most deaths could be prevented. He said 80% of those admitted to the hospital with the virus were over 60 years old and the majority of deaths were from people who had not been vaccinated. Lauterbach, a virologist who was a popular choice for the health minister but was criticized for failing to deliver a positive message, said during a heated debate that he believed people had lost sight of the benefits of the vaccine. “If no one had been vaccinated, we would now have a perfect disaster and be in a complete lockdown. “We have to understand that,” he said. He wondered if the Germans really believed it was acceptable for the country to face many hundreds of major deaths that could be avoided every day in the near future. Sahra Wagenknecht of the far-left party Die Linke said that while it was not known “how well the vaccine offers protection against future mutations”, it was the government’s mistake to make it mandatory. “Stop trying to patronize people,” she told Scholz. “The coronavirus vaccine must remain a personal decision.” The vote was considered so crucial to the government that Scholz recalled Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock from a NATO meeting in Brussels to attend. Scholz confirmed after the debate that he believed, unlike Lauterbach, that the debate was dead in the water. “Parliament has spoken very clearly,” he said. “There is no legislative majority for a vaccine order,” he said. “This is the reality we now have to take as a basis for our actions.” Lauterbach described the decision as deeply sad. He has repeatedly accused people in the past of refusing vaccination of “holding the rest of the country hostage”. At a recent rally, Scholz urged people to get vaccinated. “Where is solidarity when you do not care if you infect other people or not?” he said. “Freedom only works when it means freedom for all.”
