[ad_1]
Sunday, November 08, 2020
No coronavirus vaccine has yet been approved in Germany. But preparations are in full swing: Who will be the first to get vaccinated when the time comes? Where is serum stored? And who pays for vaccines? So that you can get started quickly after approval, these questions are now cleared up.
In the corona pandemic, Germany is preparing for the urgently awaited distribution and storage of vaccines and their widespread use in the country. Chancellor Angela Merkel made it clear that she would first want to use a possible coronavirus vaccine to protect the healthcare system. According to a media report, the Bundeswehr wants to help with the storage of the substances. State health ministers and federal minister Jens Spahn agreed on a uniform and coordinated procedure for the supply of vaccines on Friday.
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.
“In addition to the prior administrative assistance of our soldiers with their helping hands, we can also imagine the provision of logistical support, for example by storing the vaccine in suitable places,” said a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense of “Bild am Sonntag”. “Storage of vaccines to be refrigerated requires special care and must be carefully planned.” According to information in the newspaper, the corona virus vaccine will be temporarily stored in various barracks and from there it will be delivered to 60 vaccination centers nationwide.
Who will receive the first vaccines?
In the debate on the first vaccines, Chancellor Merkel said the issue will be discussed with the Permanent Commission on Vaccination, the Leopoldina Academy of Sciences and the ethics committee. “But I think I can reveal so much that I say that right in front are, of course, nurses, doctors and also people who belong to a risk group. There are quite a few in our country,” he said about the day. the open door of the federal government in a video in which he answered questions from citizens.
The board of directors of the German Foundation for Patient Protection, Eugen Brysch, urged parliamentary participation in the discussion. “Who should get the vaccine first has to be discussed and decided in the Bundestag. Only its democratically elected members are legitimized by the people for this,” Brysch emphasized. The federal and state governments would have to stipulate in a binding manner how the serum would also reach people in the nursing homes there. “That will not work with a few centers.”
Merkel emphasized: “No one will be forced to get vaccinated, it is a voluntary decision.” The central task is to make the population as a whole immune to the virus. If between 60 and 70 percent of the population is immune, through vaccination or a disease they have suffered, the virus is “more or less defeated,” Merkel said. “Then we can also lift all restrictions,” he said. On Monday, the Ethics Council, the Vaccination Commission and Leopoldina will present a joint position paper on the regulation of access to a vaccine in Berlin.
