BERLIN (AP) – Slow down the blocs in the race to immunize its citizens against COVID-19, and Germany has an unknown problem: a large amount of vaccines and not enough arms to inject it.
Like other countries in the European Union, its national vaccination campaign lags far behind that of Israel, Britain and the United States. There are now more and more calls in this country of 83 million to drop the rule book, or at least rewrite it a bit.
In January, Germans watched with morbid fascination as Britain trained an army of volunteers to deliver coronavirus shots, and was then surprised that the UK – which had hit the pandemic far worse than Germany – could succeed in more than ‘ to vaccinate half a million people on some days.
The American drive-by vaccination centers and the COVID-19 shots issued in American grocery stores became stunned in Germany – that is, until the country’s own plans for orderly vaccination at specialized centers were overwhelmed by demand.
Hans-Martin von Gaudecker, a professor of economics at the University of Bonn, said Britain and the United States had a much more pragmatic approach to vaccination. “What normally makes the German bureaucracy dumb and reliable becomes a stumbling block in a crisis and costs lives.”
The European Medicines Agency has approved the AstraZeneca vaccine for all age groups, but several EU countries, including Germany, have introduced stricter age limits.
With its 2 million dose of AstraZeneca doses, Germany wants more people to be eligible for the shots so far limited to a fraction of the population: people in the highest priority group younger than 65.
France changed tactics earlier this week to allow some over 65s to get the AstraZeneca vaccine after initially restricting its use to younger people. Health Minister Olivier Veran said the shot would soon also be available to people over 50 with health problems making them more vulnerable.
France, which has more than 87,000 deaths under the highest coronavirus toll in Europe, used only 25% of the 1.6 million AstraZeneca vaccines it had received since Tuesday.
The age restrictions of European countries on AstraZeneca have caused problems due to initial delivery delays and some public reticence against the vaccine.
Yet this week’s data from the Mass Point Program for England showed that both AstraZeneca and the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine were approximately 60% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 in people over 70, after just a single dose. The analysis, released by Public Health England, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, also showed that both vaccines were about 80% effective in preventing hospitalizations among people older than 80.
Belgium and Italy, too, are weakening their age restrictions for the AstraZeneca vaccine, while facing a looming third increase in COVID-19 cases, driven by more contagious virus variants.
In Italy, the new government, Prime Minister Mario Draghi, ousted the COVID-19 emergency wound this week and put a general of the army with expertise in logistics and experience in Afghanistan and Kosovo in charge of the country’s vaccination program.
Denmark, meanwhile, stands out as a success story of the EU vaccination. The Scandinavian nation leads the bloc’s vaccination charts along with little Malta and expects to vaccinate all adults by July – well ahead of the EU target of 70% of adults vaccinated by September.
Instead of withholding doses for the required second survey, the Danish health authorities followed the British model of using all available vaccines – an approach that more EU countries are now considering.
And all of Denmark’s 6 million people have digital health records linked to a single ID number, which enables the authorities to determine exactly who is eligible and reach out directly to them. British authorities also text people directly to set up shots.
“There are historical reasons why we do not have a centralized register like in Denmark,” von Gaudecker said, referring to Germany’s grim history of state repression under Nazism and Communism.
“Of course, a state can do terrible things with data,” he said. “But it can also do good things with data.”
Better focus on available doses for those who need it is one way European countries hope to stay ahead of the virus in the coming months, as more infectious variants spread.
France and Spain plan to give just one shot of the two-dose vaccines to some people who have recovered from COVID-19, arguing that recent infections serve as partial protection against the virus.
Italy, France and the Czech Republic prefer vaccinations at breakout points. Hungary’s leader received a Chinese COVID-19 shot over the weekend and his country and Slovakia buy Russian Sputnik V to supplement other vaccines supplied by the EU. The president of Poland has suggested that his country follow Hungary’s lead in getting Chinese vaccinations.
The number of available vaccines in the EU could swell further next week if the European Medicines Agency follows the lead of the US to approve the single-dose vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson. President Joe Biden has indicated that the US now expects to receive enough coronavirus vaccine for all adults by the end of May. – two months earlier than expected.
“If we can not vaccinate the little we have, we will obviously have an even bigger problem if we get a lot of vaccine,” said Baerbel Bas, a lawmaker at Germany’s Central Democratic Party center.
Germany’s health minister said more than 5% of the population had now received a first dose.
“But it’s clear we need more pace,” said Jens Spahn. He added that the vaccination centers will have greater flexibility to decide to whom they can give the shots.
Ursula Nonnemacher, the top health official in the German state of Brandenburg, which surrounds Berlin, has vowed not to leave any precious doses of vaccine in storage, as she announces the start of vaccinations on Wednesday in some doctors’ practice.
“Now we’re going to switch,” she said.
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Raf Casert in Brussels, Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Aritz Parra in Madrid, Angela Charlton in Paris, Frances D’Emilio in Rome and Monika Sciclowska in Warsaw contributed to this report.
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