The federal government’s booster campaign is just beginning to pick up speed, and the next problem is just around the corner: The vaccine is running out, as Health Minister Karl Lauterbach confirms.
The corona vaccine could run out in Germany as early as the beginning of next year. “Indeed, we have too little vaccine. That surprised many – me too,” warned Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) on Tuesday evening in the ARD “Tagesthemen”. After an inventory, the experts at his company came to the conclusion that the reserves and orders for January to March were insufficient.
Lauterbach assured the ARD that he was already working on a solution and hoped to be able to convey a positive message in the coming days. “It runs through all the channels that are available, we can’t leave anything out here. I also use the channels that we have directly with the companies, but everything has to work in an EU-compliant manner,” explained the minister. “We have to gain speed here, so I’ve been here on several levels since the weekend.”
“Fatal signal” to everyone fighting the pandemic
According to “Spiegel”, Lauterbach had already said in the afternoon at a meeting of the federal and state health ministers that too little vaccine had been procured by the previous government. “The quantities are not enough to drive the booster vaccination campaign,” the minister was quoted as saying. This applies to the entire first quarter. In January, only around 1.2 million vaccine doses from Biontech would be available for booster vaccinations, it said. This is about a sixth of the previous amount.
Criticism came from the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV). Its chairman Andreas Gassen told the “Bild” that the admission of the shortage was a “fatal signal” to everyone who is currently fighting the pandemic with full commitment. It is “not to explain to anyone that too little vaccine was bought in the country of vaccine development”.
With a view to the highly contagious omicron variant of the corona virus, Lauterbach says it wants to wait for recommendations from the Federal Government’s new Expert Council. The Minister of Health did not rule out further contact restrictions before Christmas: “I hope that this will not be necessary, but I cannot speculate about it. I simply do not want to anticipate the expert advice.”
Expert advice advises on Omikron before Christmas
The expert council met for the first time on Tuesday and wants to present an initial opinion on the Omikron variant before Christmas. “What is scientifically proven will play a much greater role for the federal government and for me than in the past,” said Lauterbach. “If the recommendations were to recommend radical steps, then we would definitely consider them.”
Meanwhile, the President of the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI), Klaus Cichutek, reckoned that it would take “three to four” months until vaccines specially adapted to the new variant were made available. The manufacturers of the mRNA vaccines, Biontech and Moderna, had signaled that they would be able to “implement a strain adaptation within six weeks and then be able to produce millions of doses within a few weeks,” said Cichutek of the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” (NOZ).
Source From: Stern
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