Merkel makes urgent appeal for Germans to get Covid-19 shots Merkel makes urgent appeal for Germ... German Chancellor Angela Merkel reinforced the governments urgent appeal for people to get vaccinated against Covid-19, saying the inoculation campaign will be the deciding factor for the future course of the pandemic. "The more are vaccinated, the more free we can be again," Merkel said Tuesday during a visit to the RKI public-health institute. Still, Germany won't follow France in requiring compulsory vaccination for health workers, she said. Merkel and officials in her government have long said the vaccine campaign is the only way Europe's biggest economy can return to -- and maintain -- something resembling normality. However, there is increasing evidence that the vaccination drive, which had accelerated rapidly after a sluggish start, is beginning to slow.