Experts and politicians slammed the German government on Saturday for failing to secure adequate supplies of vaccine doses before the country’s coronavirus vaccination.
As a member of the EU vaccine procurement scheme, Germany is dependent on regulators at European level that authorize the vaccine to prevent COVID-19 infection.
But the EU has taken longer than countries like the UK, US and Canada to give the go-ahead.
So far, only the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine has been approved in EU member states, but the bloc as a whole has made only 300 million doses over the summer, believing more vaccine alternatives would be available.
Frauke Zipp, a neurologist and member of the advisory Leopoldina Academy of Sciences, on Saturday complained to German lawmakers about their lack of foresight in obtaining vaccines.
“I consider the current situation to be a serious failure,” she said. The world newspaper. “Why did they not order much more of the vaccine during the summer just to be safe?”
The founders of BioNTech said on Friday they were scrambling to increase production after being put under pressure to fill the gaps caused by the EU’s mistake.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn rejected proposals that the government was inadequate in its approach to vaccinating the country. “Things are going exactly as planned,” he told broadcaster RTL.
Spahn said he expects a shortfall at the outset and that the government should prioritize who will be vaccinated, but that all residents of the nursing home will receive the vaccination by the end of January.
Vaccination is a ‘race against time’
Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn defended the EU’s vaccine strategy against German radio broadcaster RBB, saying the Commission had insured almost two billion doses at six different manufacturers.
However, Karl Lauterbach, health expert for the center-left Social Democrats, told the Rheinische Post newspaper that Brussels’ failure to buy more of the Moderna vaccine was’ regrettable ‘.
“It was clear early on that the Moderna vaccine has a strong efficacy and can be used by GPs.”
Lauterbach believes it is too late for the Moderna vaccine to play an important role in Germany’s short-term vaccination needs. He also criticized the EU for not ordering BioNTech-Pfizer vaccines anymore.
Bernd Riexinger, co-chair of the Socialist Left Party, appealed directly to Minister of Health Jens Spahn to ensure the further production of BioNTech-Pfizer samples.
He said given the proliferation of the new COVID-19 variant in the UK, a successful vaccine strategy is also a race against time. ‘
Exclusion may not end too soon
Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet with state prime ministers on Tuesday to discuss a possible extension of the current exclusion – which ends on January 10.
Prior to these talks, Uwe Janssens, president of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine, asked the government to reconsider its plans.
He has the Rheinischer Post that difficult curbs must remain, even if the government reaches its infection rate of 50 per 100,000 people.
“Our intensive care physicians strongly recommend that no relaxation be considered before the incidence value is below 25 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants per week,” Janssens said.
The current infection rate in Germany is 141.2, according to the Robert Koch Institute. However, this number varies widely nationwide, with some regions in Saxony having more than 500.