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According to information from SPIEGEL, Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) announced a vaccination offer for all citizens at a meeting of the digital union parliamentary group in the second quarter. The Welt reported on that first. Accordingly, he said there will be a vaccination offer for all interested parties “probably in the second quarter of 2021.”
According to the participants, Spahn said that by the end of the year they would have received 1.5 million doses of vaccines from Biontech, another four million would be received by the end of January and that a total of 60 million doses of vaccines from Biontech is expected. The Moderna vaccine is expected to be approved this week and 50 million doses of the vaccine are planned for Germany, that’s enough for anyone interested.
Surprising announcement after much criticism
Spahn’s announcement is surprising, until now the general population was expected to be offered vaccinations starting in the summer. It remains to be seen whether Spahn can implement this ambitious program. For a successful vaccination campaign, not only the quantity of vaccination doses in the country is important, but also the distribution to the federal states and local logistics.
Politicians and scientists are currently criticizing the government and the EU’s procurement strategy for corona vaccines. Leopoldina researcher Frauke Zipp spoke of a “flagrant failure of those responsible”. Relatively little vaccine is available in Germany, deliveries to the federal states were delayed.
Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) had said that the EU had ordered too few vaccines and depended on the wrong manufacturers. The scientist and founder of Biontech, Uğur Şahin, told SPIEGEL that he was surprised by the acquisition of vaccines from the EU.
Both the government and the EU Commission have resisted the accusations. The federal government reaffirmed the European course. A spokesman for the Health Ministry said the problem was not the “order quantity” but the “production capacity” of the vaccine manufacturers. So far, only one vaccine has been approved in the EU, that of the Mainz company Biontech.
According to the dpa news agency, the pharmaceutical industry defended the government’s actions. “As far as we know, the EU and the Federal Government dealt with the procurement of vaccines from the beginning,” said Hans-Georg Feldmeier, president of the Federal Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry. Negotiations were held with all potential vaccine manufacturers.
