Corona News: Spahn: vaccinate those who need protection first – politics



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Residents of nursing homes and nursing homes, the nursing staff there, and people over the age of 80 should have access to corona vaccines first. Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) said on Friday in Berlin. In the afternoon he wanted to sign a vaccination ordinance that would determine the sequence of immunizations. Vaccinations are expected to begin on December 27. The priority is first to vaccinate people who are particularly vulnerable, Spahn said. “Only then can we think about expanding the range step by step.”

Spahn asked the population for patience at Friday’s press conference. He said vaccination of the first group would take at least a month or two. The established order means “we will have to live with this virus for longer.” The Standing Commission on Vaccination made its recommendations Thursday on who should get vaccinated first. There was also talk of “medical personnel at very high risk of infection.” Spahn confirmed on Friday that doctors and nurses who do not work in nursing homes and retirement homes would also be vaccinated early. Follow the commission’s recommendations.

“Vaccination is the way out of the pandemic,” the CDU politician said Friday morning in ZDF. At the same time, he asked for an understanding that not everyone could be vaccinated immediately. “Now we are starting with those over 80, the very old, the people who need care and those who care for them,” the minister said. This group is already so large that it will shape vaccination events in Germany in the coming weeks. First, a community effort is about protecting the particularly vulnerable. “I just have to ask everyone else for patience,” Spahn said. “We will start with those who are particularly at risk.” Only then will they think of expanding the range of vaccines.

At the press conference in Berlin, Spahn said it was a question of solidarity that risk groups first had access to vaccines. Likewise, it is only supportive if people who have already been vaccinated do not immediately insist on exceptions to the crown measures. Spahn again refused to be vaccinated.

More than 30,000 new infections again

In Germany, 33,777 new cases have tested positive for the corona virus, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). A new high. The number includes 3,500 late registrations from Baden-Württemberg that had not been shipped the day before for technical reasons. This brings the total to 1,439,938 positive tests. Another 813 people who tested positive died. This is the second highest value reported so far in Germany. A total of 24,938 people have now died from and from the virus in Germany. The seven-day incidence increases to 184.8 from 179.2 the day before. The federal and state governments are striving to achieve a goal of less than 50. The value indicates how many people per 100,000 residents tested positive in seven days.

The seven-day R-value nationwide was 0.97 on Thursday night. This means that 100 infected people infect 97 more people. However, the value is of limited importance due to pending data transfers. The value represents the onset of the infection eight to 16 days ago. The pandemic only subsides when it is below 1 for a longer period of time.

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Justice Minister Lambrecht rejects the triage law

In discussing a possible Bundestag concern about the threat of triage in clinics, Federal Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) refers to existing recommendations from medical societies and the German Ethics Council. How and with what intensive medical measures patients are treated is “a medical decision in individual cases that can be made solely on the basis of medical criteria,” Lambrecht said. Rheinische Mail.

Medical societies and the German Ethics Council have made recommendations that doctors could use for a large number of crown patients in clinics, Lambrecht said. The Federal Constitutional Court made it clear that “all life is equally worthy of protection and should not be weighed against another life.” The Ethics Council also affirmed that human dignity prohibits the State from distinguishing between the chances of survival and the risk of death in acute crises.

The minister said literally: “If doctors have to make a decision in such an extreme situation, nothing impossible should be asked of them.” The prevailing opinion among lawyers is that criminal penalties are ruled out if doctors act in critical decision-making situations for understandable medical reasons. Every sick person should receive the best possible medical treatment.

SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach refused to allow parliament to deal with triage as “completely absurd”. All German hospitals have triage plans in place and could better organize them themselves. Not all classification systems are suitable for all clinics. The best way to avoid overloading individual intensive care units is to move patients to other homes, Lauterbach said. That is already happening. One is far from the threat of triage in various regions.

Reports that a Saxony hospital apparently had to resort to the dreaded triage have sparked a political discussion about the legal basis. The term means that healthcare professionals must decide who to help first due to limited resources. Associations of people with disabilities have complained that people with disabilities may be disadvantaged. They asked for a referral to the Bundestag. World Medical President Frank Ulrich Montgomery accused politicians of defrauding doctors with the decision.

Charité: Operation reduced to “pure emergency program” since Monday

Due to an expected further increase in Covid-19 patients, Berlin’s Charité University Hospital will significantly limit operations in other areas as of Monday. “While we have handled ourselves with fairly moderate restrictions on clinical care so far, […] we must first reduce our activities to a pure emergency program in the next 14 days, “says Health Care Board Member Ulrich Frei.” We are still in an unusually serious crisis that we have not yet experienced. We still have tough weeks ahead of us. “

The return of operations to an emergency program during Christmas and the turn of the year means, in Frei’s words, that initially there will be no more predictable interventions and that bed occupancy will be reduced by at least another 300 beds. According to the clinic, emergencies will continue to be attended and tumor operations will be carried out. There are no restrictions on rescue centers.

La Charité, with its three locations in the capital, deals mainly with severe cases of Covid 19, but also cares for those affected in normal rooms. It is the largest university hospital in Europe.

Merkel, Spahn and Karliczek thank the heads of Biontech

A vaccine from Mainz-based company Biontech and its US partner Pfizer could be approved before Christmas. On Thursday, Chancellor Angela Merkel, Health Minister Jens Spahn and Federal Minister of Research Anja Karliczek (all CDU) exchanged views with the two founders of Biontech, Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci, in a video conference and gave them the thanks.

Merkel said the federal government is very proud that one of the first coronavirus vaccines has been developed in Germany. Spahn emphasized that the vaccine was the way out of this crisis and an offer from the State to society. I was happy that the vaccine was “Made in Mainz, made in Germany”. Karliczek wanted to “warmly” thank the bosses at Biontech. “The world is looking at Biontech,” he said. She closely followed the development of the vaccine and assured him that the timing was optimized, but that the usual standards were used.

Şahin thanked his team for their trust and support with the investigation. The rapid distribution of the vaccine would not have been possible without international cooperation. Türeci emphasized that in the development of the vaccine, tolerance and high effectiveness were particularly important so that as many people as possible could vaccinate without hesitation.

The vaccine is based on so-called mRNA technology, in which genetic information from the virus activates human cells to produce immunity against the virus. According to data from Biontech and Pfizer, the vaccine is 95 percent effective in all age groups. Next Monday, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) will probably give the green light to the vaccine, eight days ahead of schedule.

Head of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians: Confinement is not a long-term strategy

The director of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV), Andreas Gassen, hopes that the closure that has been in place since Wednesday will fail. “I am not assuming that we will achieve a relevant reduction in infection rates and certainly not in deaths by January 10,” Gassen told the editorial network in Germany. An extension of the lock will not change that. “The lockdown, no matter how difficult, is not an adequate long-term strategy to combat pandemics.”

It is difficult to imagine that the value of 50 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants in seven days, cited as a benchmark by the policy, will be exceeded sustainably through a lockdown, “regardless of whether the lockdown lasts for three or ten weeks” .

Instead, more should be done to protect at-risk groups in nursing homes and nursing homes. In addition, the flow of people must be equalized, for example by using more buses and trains, as well as subsidized taxi rides for risk groups, demanded Gassen.

According to Gassen, the crown’s protective measures could be lifted if everyone ready to be vaccinated has received a vaccine. If you don’t want to be vaccinated, you must live with the risk of developing Covid-19 or even dying from it. “It cannot be that the rest of society has to permanently consider vaccinators.” Expect the population to be vaccinated for the summer.

Not all people need to be vaccinated to protect the population from further spread of the virus. For the so-called herd immunity, it is sufficient if around 70 percent of the population is immune.

Douglas perfume chain is closing branches after all

Douglas is rowing: the perfumery chain is recovering the opening of some branches, which was maintained despite the blockade. For many people, the decision to keep some branches with pharmacy ranks open was incomprehensible, the company announced Thursday. “From today, all our German branches will be closed until further notice,” said Douglas, director of the largest German perfumery chain, Tina Müller. According to a statement from the company, he asked “to apologize to those we have alienated or offended for our actions.”

Douglas had left nearly a quarter of the branches open on the first day of the national shutdown, referring to the federal and state decision that continues to allow the sale of pharmacy items. Verdi’s union in Hesse had previously spoken of a “shameful undermining of the blockade”. The perfumery declared itself a pharmacy overnight.

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