Vaccinate! Vaccinate! Vaccinate! That is the credo of politics at the moment, hoping to curb the Omikron variant. But according to Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, the needs of doctors cannot be met, especially with Biontech.
The vaccine from Biontech / Pfizer has the best reputation among Germans of all vaccines against the coronavirus. It would be all the more important if the vaccine developed in this country were in abundance in order to advance the vaccination and booster campaign. But precisely this vaccine is already not available in sufficient quantities, as Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) admitted in the evening.
“We can deliver 1.2 million cans of Biontech for all of Germany in the next week, 800,000 cans the following week and then another 1.2 million cans,” said Lauterbach on Wednesday evening in the ZDF program “Markus Lanz – The Year 2021 “. “But that is much less than what the doctors call up every week.”
Karl Lauterbach fears shortages in the first quarter of 2022
Lauterbach explained: “Those are reserves. We are pouring everything out here. Because the campaign has to go as well as it can.” On Tuesday evening Lauterbach had already spoken of a “shortage of vaccines” for the first quarter of 2022 on ARD. In response, the new federal government wants to buy more than 90 million Biontech vaccines. The CDU accused Lauterbach of shouting “fire” in order to then play the fire brigade.
Now the SPD politician explained to the approximately three million Biontech cans in the next three weeks that he had broken up the available amount. The idea is that a lot will be vaccinated in the coming week, a little less during the week of Christmas and then more. “More is simply not there,” said Lauterbach. “We cannot serve the doctors who are now ordering more.”
Biontech: buyback from Eastern European countries planned
The health minister said: “I am now trying to buy back vaccine from Eastern European countries as an emergency.” Some of the serum delivered there cannot be inoculated. The Moderna vaccine is currently still in sufficient quantities. The problem here is that the quantities drop very sharply from January onwards. “What we have now secured is 1.5 million doses a week. And so I have to do something.”
The SPD politician emphasized that the communication about vaccine shortages was not a reproach against his predecessor Jens Spahn (CDU). There was also enough vaccine available throughout the year – but not for a very fast booster campaign.
Source From: Stern
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