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In the fight against Corona, there is hope that vaccines will soon be used. But who gets vaccinated first? Scientific advisers are making a recommendation today. Minister Spahn also wants a social debate.
According to estimates by the federal government, there could be a first corona vaccine later this or early next year. But who should get vaccinated first?
In view of the comparatively small amounts initially expected, it shouldn’t be enough for everyone, but politics and science want to avoid a race for vaccination among the population.
Therefore, the scientific advisers of the Federal Government today present the corresponding proposals in Berlin: the German Ethics Council, the Leopoldina National Academy of Sciences and the Permanent Commission for Vaccination based at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) want to present a document set on vaccination strategy.
Risk groups in sight
The federal government had already made it clear that risk groups such as the elderly and people with prior illnesses, as well as personnel in important areas such as health care, are in focus. “Right at the front are, of course, nurses, doctors and also people who belong to a risk group. There are quite a few in our country,” Chancellor Angela Merkel said.
According to the Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn, up to 40 percent of people in Germany are at risk from the Corona crisis. “We have 23 million Germans over 60,” said the CDU politician of the newspaper “Bild”. “We are a prosperous country with diseases of civilization: diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity. All risk factors for this virus, as well as for many infectious diseases, by the way.”
Spahn asked all Germans for a broad discussion about which population groups should get vaccinated against Corona first if a vaccine is available. “I think it is important that there is a political debate, but also a social one at every lunch, in the family or at work,” Spahn said of “Bild”. You have to decide who should be vaccinated first: the one with the highest occupational risk. The one at risk. Or the one who has a lot of contact with others. The CDU politician announced that the Bundestag would also deal with this issue.
According to a report from the news portal “ThePioneer”, the national vaccination strategy of the Federal Ministry of Health should be decided today by the Corona cabinet.
Online data portal apparently planned for vaccination data collection
Consequently, the federal government is planning central documentation of vaccines. “For this purpose, a web-based data portal will be used, which will be developed by the RKI (Robert Koch Institute) when vaccination activities begin in Germany,” the document portal quotes. The government intends to provide the most complete and up-to-date description possible of which sections of the population have already been vaccinated. Consequently, non-personal information such as age, sex, place of residence and indication of vaccination, as well as the place and date of vaccination and the vaccine product with batch number, must be recorded.
In addition, seven possible vaccines are named for which approval is requested within the EU. Among them, that of the Biontech company from Mainz, which cooperates with the US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, and that of Curevac from Tübingen. “Some vaccine manufacturers have announced a possible first delivery of vaccine doses to EU member states in 2020,” he says. “As soon as sufficient quantities of vaccine are available, the goal will be to transfer vaccination activities to the regular system.”
The health ministers of the federal states and Spahn agreed on Friday a uniform and coordinated procedure for the supply of vaccines. The decision of the conference of health ministers calls for the federal government to obtain and finance vaccines and for the federal states to establish vaccination centers. The vaccines are said to be delivered by the Bundeswehr or by the manufacturer. Vaccination doses should be distributed to federal states according to the proportion of the population.
13,363 new infections in Germany
But there is no vaccine on the market yet, and the number of new corona infections remains high. German health authorities reported 13,363 new corona infections to the RKI in 24 hours. That’s about 2,650 fewer cases than on Sunday, according to information from the RKI on Monday morning. The number of cases registered is typically lower on Mondays, in part because fewer tests are conducted on weekends. Last Monday, the number of new infections reported was 12,097. The peak was reached on Saturday with 23,399 reported cases.
According to the RKI, a total of 671,868 people throughout Germany have been infected with Sars-CoV-2 since the start of the pandemic (until November 9 at 00:00). The number of deaths related to the virus rose by 63 to a total of 11,352 by Monday. The RKI estimates that around 429,600 people have recovered.
According to RKI’s situation report on Sunday night, the so-called seven-day R was 1.01 (previous day: 1.04). That means that ten infected people infected another ten people on average. The value represents the appearance of the infection 8 to 16 days ago. If it is below 1 for a long time, the infection process subsides.
Health system overload warning
In light of the current crown numbers, Spahn warned of overload not only on health authorities. “We are seeing an increasing overload of the public health system, that is, the health authorities,” said Spahn dem Berlin report. “Now we see more and more increasing exposure and the threat of overload in intensive care medicine, in hospitals and doctors’ offices.”
