Brussels, Berlin The Federal Republic can count on millions of additional vaccine doses in the next few months. According to Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD), the EU Commission and the US manufacturer Moderna have promised to deliver ten million doses in December, which were actually only planned for the first quarter of 2022.
In the first few months of the coming year, Moderna wants to deliver more than previously agreed. The company prefers a tranche of 25 million cans for the Federal Republic. There is close cooperation with Brussels, said Lauterbach at the federal press conference in Berlin.
This is a “first success”. In addition, Germany can count on 80 million doses of additional vaccine from Biontech / Pfizer, which has already been adapted to the new Omikron variant.
Part of it can already be delivered in the first quarter. The EU is using an option to deliver a total of 150 million cans. Germany wanted to take the “lion’s share” of this, said a top European official. The budget committee had released 2.2 billion euros for another vaccine on Wednesday.
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Preparations for the fourth vaccination
Lauterbach said he was also in talks with Romania, Bulgaria, Poland and Portugal to buy more cans from there. There were already indications that the federal government could buy supplies abroad because some states – partly due to a low vaccination rate – cannot get rid of their vaccines. You have to be prepared for a fourth vaccination, said Lauterbach. This can then already be adapted against the Omikron variant.
The news should bring relief. Lauterbach had warned of supply bottlenecks at the beginning of the week, many citizens are unsettled. Criticism came from the Union as well as from general practitioners.
Lauterbach had stated that not enough vaccine would be available for the booster campaign in the first quarter of next year. This meant that the booster campaign could not have been completed until March – “and therefore too late,” said Lauterbach on Thursday.
He reckons that by the end of the first quarter 50 million vaccine doses will be necessary for the booster vaccinations and around 20 million for the first and second vaccinations.
“We have to serve these quantities so that we can keep up the vaccination rate”. Currently, 1.5 million people would be vaccinated a third time a day. The booster gap could be closed as early as January. This is the crucial month to keep the Omicron wave as flat as possible. Whether enough vaccine will be available so quickly, however, is also due to the additional deliveries from other EU countries.
The additional deliveries from Moderna alone could be enough for up to 70 million booster vaccinations, since half of the normal dose can be used when boosting with Moderna. However, it is still unclear whether this procedure will continue.
Studies are currently underway to determine whether a full dose is necessary for the third vaccination because of the highly contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus. But “one way or the other”, the additional delivery “will help Germany”, says the commission. Lauterbach referred to the ongoing studies.
Moderna vaccine with acceptance problem
The federal government is now faced with the task of reducing the acceptance problem that the Moderna active ingredient encounters in Germany. The past few months have shown that many Germans prefer to be vaccinated with the preparation from Biontech / Pfizer.
The skepticism towards Moderna is a German peculiarity; according to the Commission, it does not exist in other EU countries. The rejection was “difficult to understand”, said a high-ranking representative of the Brussels authority. Studies have shown that Moderna’s vaccine works even better when boosting than that of Biontech and Pfizer. In Germany, you have to “emphasize even more,” said the top official
Lauterbach said that an “offensive booster campaign” was now needed to prevent the health systems from becoming overburdened. The Minister referred to discussions with the UK Minister of Health.
There the cases would double with the new variant at an interval of two to three days – “and this with a very heavily vaccinated population.” Those are worrying numbers, said Lauterbach. The third vaccination is important because it increases protection against infection.
The head of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Lother Wieler, also expressed concern. “There are still difficult weeks ahead of us,” he said. The number of infections would decrease, but only slowly.
In addition, the decline is not yet noticeable in the clinics. “The intensive care units are at their limit,” warned Wieler. He pointed out that with the spread of the omicron virus variant, the number of infections would rise again. “We must now generally prevent infections before the number of cases increases again.”
The nationwide seven-day incidence fell again on Thursday. The RKI gave the value of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants and week at 340.1. For comparison: the previous day the value was 353.0. A week ago, the nationwide incidence was 422.3. The health authorities in Germany reported 56,677 new corona infections to the RKI within one day.
The number of corona patients admitted to clinics per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days was given by the RKI as 5.27. Previously the value was 5.21. The hospitalization rate is a decisive indicator for the infection rate and is used as a limit value for corona measures in the countries.
Child vaccinations begin
Lauterbach and Wieler put their hopes in the vaccinations for five to eleven year olds. For this, the federal government will receive 2.4 million vaccine doses in a first tranche. Given the total of 4.4 million children in this age group, this should be sufficient in a first move.
More cans are to follow at the beginning of next year. In addition to medical practices, child vaccinations are also provided in vaccination centers in some countries. In some places special campaigns are planned – in Berlin, for example, in the natural history museum and the zoo, in Lower Saxony, among other things, in the Hannover 96 stadium. The actual start is sometimes different.
The pediatrician Jörg Dötsch from the University of Cologne said in Berlin that, with a view to the Delta and Omikron variants, he has not yet seen any increase in the severity of the disease course of an infection. He advised, however, that five to eleven-year-olds with a previous illness should be vaccinated.
Children who lived with people who could not be vaccinated should also get vaccinated, said Dötsch. He also advised parents who generally wanted their child to be vaccinated to do so. The first data suggest only minor side effects.
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