No vaccinations, no kindergarten place?

08/04/2012

In the future, a place in a state-funded day care center should be linked to the proof of certain vaccinations in the opinion of the Association for Paediatricians (BVKJ). At least the German Press Agency (dpa) reports. „The children should be vaccinated against diseases that can be transmitted from person to person. This is the only way to prevent, for example, measles from spreading again and again“, said Ulrich Fegeler, spokesman for the BVKJ, at a health forum in Berlin. The highly contagious chickenpox (varicella) was one of them.

BVKJ President Hartmann: „Politicians are called upon to protect children“ On request of the German Central Association of Homeopathic Doctors (DZVhÄ) confirmed the president of the BVKJ, Wolfram Hartmann: „It is association statement of the BVKJ that the allocation of Kita places is to be coupled to the vaccination protection of the children“, this applies to the vaccinations against all diseases that are transferable from person to person and play a role in Germany. These included, for example, diphtheria, polio, measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox, says Hartmann. „More and more children are being admitted to kindergartens younger than one year old. These can not be vaccinated against measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox yet“, explains Hartmann, „This applies to all children younger than eleven months - for these vaccines are not approved“. Germany does not have the optimal „Immunization coverage“ reached. It was necessary to vaccination rates of 95 percent, „to achieve the so-called herd immunity and eradicate the diseases“, so Hartmann.

On the question of whether the responsibility for vaccinations is not with the parents, who would have to decide this for the benefit of their child, Hartmann says: „If parents were vaccinated their children accordingly, we would need nothing to demand“, the policy must intervene, „we are talking about potentially fatal diseases here.“

Vaccination forced through the back door?
The Munich pediatrician Steffen Rabe from the Association of „Doctors for individual vaccination decisions“ sees it differently: „That would be the introduction of a vaccination obligation through the back door and would fail at the latest before the Federal Constitutional Court“, Rabe is convinced. It is the forcing of a medical measure in one „Non-emergency situation“, and that does not even give the infection control law, so Rabe on. The law has a toolbox of forced vaccinations, if one reads it in detail, so Rabe, these were limited only to specific epidemiological threats. „However, we have no form of emergency for any of the diseases we are vaccinating in Germany“, explains Raven.

According to Rabe, the decision on whether or not to vaccinate a child should be made by parents alone, partly because each of the vaccinations recommended in Germany in individual cases - like many other medicines - could trigger serious side effects. According to Rabe, exposing their children to this risk in the name of vaccination rates and herd immunity can only be the individual decision of each parent. „Many of the currently recommended vaccinations of the Standing Vaccination Commission are also highly controversial among professionals“, Raven follows, „There is also no consistent scientific consensus in the medical profession that vaccines such as chickenpox or pneumococcus should be used. Also against the background and in times of limited financial resources.“

BVKJ President Hartmann sees the situation differently. „I think that here constitutional concerns should be dispelled“, so Hartmann. There was already a commitment to smallpox vaccination in Germany before 1965. And that happened on the basis of the same basic law. „That was a vaccine compulsion, which finally eradicated the smallpox. Why one here so constitutional concerns leads, I do not realize“, explains the BVKJ president.

The Federal Ministry of Health (BMG), however, declared: „There is no political will to make immunization a condition for entitlement to care“. The legal position on the subject is complex in Germany due to the federal structure. The right to a Kitaplatz is regulated by federal law in Germany. The design of the conditions for admission to a day care facility, on the other hand, is the subject of state legislation. In addition, private day care centers in turn have a so-called „support autonomy“, which assures them freedom of contract. This freedom of contract includes, to demand vaccinations of the each admitted children - or just not to demand. „The currently existing instruments, in particular the Infection Protection Act, are in principle sufficient to achieve the goal of adequate vaccination protection of the population“, informed Roland Jopp of the BMG on request of the DZVhÄ, „All vaccinations are voluntary in Germany. Only the parents decide if their child is vaccinated“, so Jopp. According to the BMG, there is no political will to make vaccinations mandatory in the Social Security Code VIII for entitlement to care. A constitutional review was therefore not done so far. The DZVhÄ is involved in a vaccination statement for an individual vaccination decision, which parents meet after a fruitful open consultation with a pediatrician. (Pm)

Also read:
Japan: Four children die after vaccination
Vaccinations with side effects
Survey confirms vaccine fatigue of Germans