Corona: No vaccine deliveries: harsh criticism of Jens Spahn

Stand: 4:22 pm | Reading time: 5 minutes

SThe secretary general of the PD, Lars Klingbeil, has criticized the organization of the start of corona vaccination in Germany and accused the Health Minister, Jens Spahn (CDU) of failures. “I find the chaos around vaccination starting very upsetting,” Klingbeil said of the “Rheinische Post.” Spahn spoke of a federal mess and pointed to the federal states. “The minister himself had months to prepare the planned start of vaccination. He has been given enough skills for this. “

It is the job of the Federal Minister of Health to ensure that the organization runs smoothly, Klingbeil said. “If the impression now arises that the state does not have this task under control, that doesn’t exactly increase confidence in vaccination.”

Spahn had promised a significant expansion of corona vaccines for the new year. Following the approval of Moderna’s serum, which is expected in early January, “rapid processing” of Astra Zeneca’s application for approval, the preparation of which was approved for vaccination in Britain on Wednesday, is underway, Spahn said in Berlin. At the same time, he called for restraint in New Year’s celebrations.

In addition to the expected approval of more vaccines, Spahn also referred to the planned start of another production plant for the preparation of Biontech and Pfizer, which is already being administered in Germany, in February. “If all this works, we can vaccinate the area faster than expected,” Spahn said.

In the first three days since the official start of the corona vaccination campaign, according to current information from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), more than 78,000 people in Germany received the immunization. So far, most vaccinations have been administered in nursing homes, Spahn said.

The minister admitted that there were some problems at the beginning of the campaign: “Yes, it shakes in one place or another,” he said. However, overall, the “largest vaccination campaign in German history has started successfully”.

Berlin Health Senator Dilek Kalayci (SPD) had previously accused the federal government of being poorly organized in the distribution of the corona vaccine. For Berlin there will be no more vaccines against the new corona virus in the first week of the new year, Kalayci told the German press agency. “We have now received the message from the Federal Ministry of Health that delivery in the first calendar week will be canceled without replacement.”

It shouldn’t continue until January 11. “That is now getting us into great difficulties, because we have made our plans based on these commitments.” And also: “I am angry. The vaccine shortage remains a problem for the initiation of vaccination in Germany, ”said Kalayci. The vaccination start schedule for people over the age of 80 living at home is beginning to take its toll.

Because Berlin was originally supposed to receive an additional 29,250 doses of vaccine from January 4. “We would have needed that to be able to start with those over 80. Of course we cannot do that now because these doses of vaccine are missing.” There is also no replacement for them later. Therefore, as of Wednesday, people over the age of 90 would initially be invited by letter to vaccinations at the new centers, scheduled for January 11 at the earliest. “If we can’t get priority groups to get vaccinated fast enough, that’s a problem,” Kalayci said. The amounts of vaccine planned for early January were also not enough for the nursing and clinic staff.

In Brandenburg, the delivery of vaccines will also stop at the beginning of the year. “The state of Brandenburg will also not receive any vaccine delivery in the first week of January,” the Health Ministry announced. On twitter to. Minister Ursula Nonnemacher (Greens) said 19,500 doses of vaccines are planned per week for Brandenburg. This means that around 10,000 people can receive vaccination protection if they need two vaccines. So far, 39,000 doses of vaccine have been administered and about 1,550 people have been vaccinated, Nonnemacher said. First, people over the age of 80, as well as residents and employees of nursing homes and hospital staff, receive protection.

Hard criticism of Bavaria

Bavaria also demands more predictability and reliability from the federal government in the delivery of corona vaccines. In particular, the state government criticized on Wednesday that a delivery scheduled for the first week of January was also canceled on short notice.

Health Minister Melanie Huml (CSU) announced that Bavaria will probably not receive any vaccines in the first week of January, contrary to the previous promise. “I find it incomprehensible how you can simply skip a full delivery with such a high number of infections. The vaccination doses actually promised were already firmly planned in our vaccination centers ”. According to the ministry, Bavaria will not receive weekly deliveries of 107,250 doses of vaccination from the federal government until January 11.

The three federal states could not be left alone with their scarcity. As initially reported by “Business Insider” with reference to an internal document from the Ministry of Health, there would be no new deliveries of vaccines from Biontech before January 11.

In response to the emerging criticism, the Health Ministry reacted on Wednesday afternoon: now the replenishment should take place in the first week of the new year. The Federal Ministry of Health in Berlin announced that it was possible to agree with the vaccine manufacturer Biontech that the next delivery, as originally planned, will take place next week, on January 8. After that, the next installment is due on January 18, thereafter every Monday for now. Initially, around 670,000 cans per week would be delivered.