The booster vaccination in Germany is starting, but there was a rumble on the way there. Stiko boss Thomas Mertens has now admitted omissions for the first time – and complains about scarce resources.
The number of booster vaccinations in Germany is increasing rapidly these days – but things are not going well everywhere. Several cities complain about lower vaccine deliveries (read more about this here) and at the beginning of the booster campaign things were slow.
Now the chairman of the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko), Thomas Mertens has admitted omissions. In the ARD broadcast he said that certain decisions of the commission “from today’s perspective” were made too late. According to Mertens’ statements, it was “probably cheaper to start boosting earlier”.
The virologist emeritus explained why the vaccination commission took so long to reach a decision: “We first define which data we need in order to be able to come to a recommendation. And when that is determined, then this data must be collected and worked out. And when this data is available, Stiko begins to discuss this data. “
Mertens complains about a shortage of staff at Stiko
Mertens was also critical of politics. This left the Stiko in the lurch. “In the situation of a pandemic one could certainly have used better staffing.” A better listing with epidemiologists and modelers would have been helpful.
Mertens also emphasized that it is not the job of Stiko to organize the “implementation of the vaccination” or to decide “how the vaccines are procured, how the vaccines are distributed. These are all things that do not affect the Stiko at all.” .
However, precisely such factors would influence the Stiko: “You can see that in the question of the recommendation of people over 70,” said Mertens. “Since it was not foreseeable that we would be able to vaccinate our population as quickly as in Israel, the first thing to do in any case was to protect those people who are also at high risk of serious illness. And that was the main reason for this recommendation. ” Accordingly, the Stiko did not decide in favor of the over 70-year-olds based on the data situation, but also because of the inadequate vaccination infrastructure in Germany.
Criticism from Israel of Mertens
The former head of the Israeli vaccination program, Ronnie Gamzu, criticized the slowness of the Stiko on “Panorama”: “That was just totally wrong. We had clear evidence, we have the data. There was no scientific basis to say that the booster vaccination only brought about something for over 65 or over 70 year olds. We have seen that the number of antibodies is also falling in 40 year olds. What kind of evidence do you still need? “
Mertens replied that “the Israeli data and evidence had to be processed first”. “There are many points that cannot be compared with Israel,” he said. The evidence from another country is not easily transferable. Gamzu said Germany missed a unique opportunity to look to the future based on Israeli data. According to his statements, these would have revealed what actually happened later in Germany.
Source From: Stern
