COVID-19: Germans will be vaccinated, cured or dead this winter, minister alert

The acting German Health Minister, Jens Spahn, warned that at the end of winter the Germans will be “vaccinated, healed or dead”, in a direct message to the population to get the vaccine against COVID who has not done so already.

“Probably, by the end of this winter, practically everyone in Germany, as has already been cynically said, will be vaccinated, healed or dead.”Said the minister at a press conference to address the campaign to boost vaccines based on mRNA technology.

With the Delta variant this is “very very likely” and “that’s why we insist so much on recommending the vaccine”He added.

In Germany, the principle of geimpft, genesen or getestet (vaccinated, healed or tested, with a negative result) is known as the 3G rule, which is applied to access certain events or closed premises and which, for example, is intended to be introduced in brief on public transport.

In recent days and in view of the dizzying increase in infections and the growing number of hospital admissions, 3G has started to be referred to as “vaccinated, recovered o died”(Vaccinated, healed or dead).

Leif Erik Sander, the head of the infectious immunology and vaccines research group at the Berlin university clinic of the Charité, stressed that “immunity through infection is not really an alternative to discuss”.

According to Sander, it would lead to a saturation of the health system, to a fifth, sixth and seventh wave, something that no one can really want, he added.

Spahn reiterated his skepticism about the possibility of a mandatory vaccine, a debate that has been opened in Germany due to the insufficient vaccination rate, one of the lowest in Europe, with only 70.5% of the population vaccinated, 68%, with the complete guideline.

He added that there is no need to respond now to the question about a mandatory nature, since he would not contribute anything in the next four weeks.

What it is about now, he insisted, is to break the fourth wave and “no mandatory vaccinations break this wave”, He declared.

Now only a reduction in contacts, determined government action, and of course booster doses of the vaccine can help. The latter, in any case, “will not make the decisive difference in two weeks“, he pointed.

Spahn spoke, however, of a “moral obligation” and “solidarity”With regard to getting vaccinated, and reiterated that in this case it is not a personal decision.