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Saturday 5 December 2020
Precarious situation among the elderly
The vaccine is probably too late for many
By Kevin Schulte
The first vaccines are also about to be approved in Germany. But even if things are going fast now, that won’t save us from a harsh winter in Corona. The situation is particularly precarious in homes for the elderly and for the elderly.
By December 29 at the latest, Ema will announce whether the Biontech and Pfizer vaccine will be approved in the EU. If the European Medicines Agency gives the green light, the EU Commission has yet to grant final approval. So vaccinations can also start in Germany.
The vaccination centers in Germany should be ready for use by then. Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn had set December 15 as the deadline. But now not much more is known. However, it is clear that not everyone can be directly vaccinated. It has not yet been finally decided what the exact prioritization should look like, although there has been a joint recommendation from the Permanent Commission on Vaccination, the German Ethics Council and Leopoldina for a month. Consequently, people in need of care, seriously ill and chronically ill people must first have the opportunity to get vaccinated. Hospital and nursing home employees should also have their shift early.
“That was a more than clear order. The Bundestag did not include this clear order in the third civil protection law,” criticized Eugen Brysch, president of the German Foundation for Patient Protection, on the ntv podcast “Another thing learned” . “Now it is up to the Federal Minister of Health to give priority. That is shocking.” Why parliament is referring “this crucial issue” to the federal government is “completely incomprehensible.”
“We play in the hands of opponents of vaccination”
The Foundation for Patient Protection is also critical of the impression that vaccination will eliminate all problems. Vaccines, whichever is approved, help against Covid-19 disease. However, it is still unclear whether vaccines also protect against infection, Brysch says. Although a study by Astrazeneca and the University of Oxford gives hope that asymptomatic infections will also become less common with vaccination. “We have to be transparent and open to discussion. We play the game of the deniers against vaccination and the crown if we don’t address this problem, if we don’t speak openly about opportunities and risks.” That’s part of an enlightened society, Brysch says.
In addition, the patient advocate sees the danger that the policy focuses on many people forget about the next vaccines. Seriously ill older people in need of care suffer in the here and now. “And let’s not forget that many people will remain isolated if we only deal with the issue of vaccination,” Brysch said. Of course it is correct to push your vaccination preparations with great effort. “But we have to proceed in parallel to get through this winter. Vaccines alone will hardly help us here.”
Eugen Brysch fears that it is probably too late for many of them when the vaccine reaches all the seriously ill, the dependent and the elderly. Especially in homes for the elderly and for the elderly, the need is enormous and while all hope is in the vaccine, there are no improvements there. In Berlin alone, the number of residents who tested positive has recently doubled, from 1,000 in mid-November to more than 2,000 last week. “So I would like to see more CRP tests with prioritization of assessment within twelve to 24 hours, also for nurses. And we also need rapid tests for visitors.”
Pharmacies probably don’t play a role
Vaccination is undoubtedly a great step in the fight against the virus. But it takes time before enough people are vaccinated and we can get back to our normal lives. According to the Robert Koch Institute, about 70 percent of people in the country have to get vaccinated to contain the corona pandemic. But here too many open questions remain. How effective are each vaccine? How long does the vaccination last? And someone also has to inject the vaccine into people.
“We have to position ourselves broadly here, there will be no silver bullet. Vaccination centers, vaccination outreach, and this is optimally complemented by creative ideas from pharmacies. I’m surprised that, for example, the federal government has completely forgotten that we have cytostatic pharmacies that could process serum at low temperatures of minus 70 degrees without any problem, ”Brysch says.
Several federal states have already rejected the proposal. According to the Pharmacists Association, there are only about 500 pharmacies in Germany that manufacture cytostatics, which are mainly used for the treatment of cancer, which corresponds to about three percent of all pharmacies in Germany. At best, they can help a bit, given the large number of people who are vaccinated.
It is currently assumed that at least 1,500 people per vaccination center can be vaccinated daily. Originally 60 vaccination centers were planned across the country, but now it is down to 400. But even this ray of hope does not help us in the fight against a long and harsh winter in Corona. It still takes a while before normalcy returns.
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