Corona virus in autumn: This is how Germany is doing when it comes to vaccination

Some people may be experiencing déjà vu these days. Remember last year for that. Travel, private meetings, celebrations, all of this was possible again in summer under certain conditions. The incidence was low, and warnings from politicians and experts about a new wave in the fall reached the ears of the population as distant noises. The willingness to vaccinate was low, despite urgent requests from the then Health Minister Spahn.

Then, in the fall, it suddenly broke out again, the Corona wave. There was also a great outcry when it came out that the vaccination was less effective in protecting against infection than assumed. Politicians finally had to massively lower their expectations of the much-touted spades because of the new corona variant. Now she is starting a new attempt – under a new Minister of Health and with an adapted vaccine.

The Mainz-based pharmaceutical company Biontech Pfizer had already announced this for this spring. But he shouldn’t come until autumn. Biontech states that the company is not to blame for the delay. “We were able to adapt the vaccine and produce the first batches within 100 days,” writes a company spokeswoman star-Inquiry. However, the requirements for a possible approval by the responsible authorities have changed. The manufacturers had therefore collected clinical data. That takes between four and six months. In addition, an approval process for adapted COVID-19 vaccines is currently still missing, according to the written answer. It is therefore open when the Omikron vaccine will be available.

The EU has already secured billions of vaccine doses

The Federal Ministry of Health calculates star-Information in September with the adapted vaccine. When asked how many cans Germany had already secured, the BMG kept a low profile. “Adapted vaccines have been ordered in sufficient numbers,” the written reply reads.

The EU Commission, on the other hand, is more specific. According to the third deal the panel struck with Biontech in May 2021, 180 billion vaccine doses have been reserved for the EU through 2023. The commission left it open what proportion of the currently available and adapted vaccine accounts for. However, she expects that a total of 650 million cans will be delivered this year alone.

The Commission has reached an agreement similar to that with Biontech with the US manufacturer Moderna. The deliveries should therefore be adapted to the needs of the EU member states. “Should an adapted vaccine receive EU approval after evaluation by the European Medicines Agency, part of the doses planned for April, May and June can be supplied as booster doses from September 2022, adapted to the current COVID-19 variants “, writes the commission on request.

The EU has also signed a pre-sale agreement with the Austro-French company Valneva, which has developed an inactivated whole-body virus vaccine (better known as “dead vaccine”). The vaccine is currently still going through the approval process of the European Medicines Agency (EMA). The only catch: according to the company, the quantities provisionally ordered by the EU would not be sufficient. Should the EU subsequently need fewer doses, they might terminate the contract again.

In this event, “Valneva will have no obligation to return any advance payments received, as Valneva has issued or committed the full amount of such advance payments and the pre-purchase agreement does not provide for a return of such payments in the circumstances,” the written notice to the star. The EU is currently discussing with the member states whether the contract should be terminated again. The commission declined to comment further.

General practitioners should vaccinate against coronavirus

So far, so unclear. And how should the ordered vaccines be brought to the citizens? Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach is planning a new vaccination campaign in autumn. “The aim is to close the vaccination gap and to promote the fourth vaccination, especially in the older population group,” says a paper from the Ministry of Health, which is available to the AFP news agency. This includes the “procurement of a sufficient number of adapted vaccines from Moderna and Biontech”. Children and young people should also be addressed more intensively. Health Minister Lauterbach is already calling for a fourth vaccination.

However, he advises against waiting for the adapted vaccine. The numerous vaccine doses that are about to expire in the camps may be one of the reasons for Lauterbach’s recommendation. A medical recommendation is at least still pending. At least the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) has so far refrained from recommending a second corona booster vaccination for all population groups. A new vaccination recommendation is currently not possible and not possible for anyone, “because we don’t know when which new vaccines will be available,” said Stiko chairman Thomas Mertens of the Düsseldorf “Rheinische Post”. And: “We don’t know anything about the variants that can occur in late summer and autumn.” It is therefore currently missing “the basis for a solid, justifiable recommendation”.

Medical practices instead of vaccination centers

The question of where citizens should be vaccinated could also offer potential for conflict. The German Association of General Practitioners advocates that only established doctors administer the Piks. “Almost three quarters of the vaccinations are carried out by the resident doctors. The majority by the general practitioners, who are usually the first point of contact,” writes spokesman Vincent Jörres dem star. In earlier phases of the pandemic, they had shown that they were able to carry out hundreds of thousands of vaccinations per day.

“The general practitioners will also be able to vaccinate anyone who wants to do so in the autumn. The practices have prepared for this. The prerequisite is, of course, that the vaccines are delivered reliably and in a coordinated manner this time. That was not always the case in the past the case,” says the written response. The General Practitioners Association sees no point in the vaccination centers. Instead, the concept of mobile vaccination teams should be expanded. The states and municipalities have had good experiences with this.

It is unclear how many vaccination centers there are at the moment. The Federal Ministry of Health points out that the federal states are responsible for this. However, all centers and mobile vaccination teams would receive 50 percent financial support from the federal government by the end of the year. A query to the federal states shows: There they rely on a mixture of medical practices, vaccination centers and mobile vaccination teams. The main focus should be on vaccinations being carried out by family doctors. There will still be a few public vaccination centers. in Thuringia, for example, only until the end of the year. There have been no vaccination centers in Lower Saxony since October last year.

The situation is different in the state of Bavaria: There, the operators of the vaccination centers are required to be able to quickly increase their capacities again if necessary. “Anyone who wants to be vaccinated should have the opportunity to do so in a timely manner. If there is a significantly increased need for vaccination in autumn, the district administrative authorities can – depending on local needs – open locations again,” said a written reply. With regard to organization, vaccine ordering and recruitment of staff, certain lead times for an increase in capacity can hardly be avoided.

According to the responsible ministries in the federal states, the number of vaccinations has fallen since the beginning of the year. However, the authorities expect demand to pick up again in the fall. Reasons for this could be the adapted Omikron vaccine or a general recommendation for the fourth vaccination by Stiko.

In autumn it will have to be seen whether Karl Lauterbach is more successful in increasing vaccination readiness than his predecessor Jens Spahn. The population’s trust should not necessarily fly to him, because if one thing has become clear since the beginning of vaccinations, it is that they are not the most reliable means of fighting the pandemic. Let’s just hope that we won’t experience another déjà vu this fall.