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Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn (CDU) wants to give citizens the opportunity to quickly report possible effects and side effects through an app after a corona vaccination. “We will make it very, very transparent,” Spahn said Tuesday at the ARD “Tagesthemen.” This applies to the approval of vaccines, but also to the time after. “Trust is the most important thing when it comes to vaccination.” The minister did not initially provide further details about the new function of the app.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced on Tuesday that it intends to present its opinion on the vaccine from the Mainz company Biontech and its US partner Pfizer on December 21, that is, eight days earlier than before. The EU Commission must then give its formal approval. This is a formality and could also be done in one day. This would clear the way for the start of mass vaccinations in all EU member states.
Spahn described it as a very good sign that, as things stand today, there will be approval in the EU before Christmas Eve. After that, you can start vaccinations within two to four days. In Germany, vaccination centers and vaccination structures have been operational since Tuesday. In a first step, after approval, “around 400,000 cans could be delivered.” After that, step by step, week after week, there are more doses.
First, Germany will receive the vaccine from the European treaties as agreed, stressed the minister. These are eleven to 13 million doses of vaccines at the end of the first trimester. Later in the year the delivery of vaccination doses was added, which had been agreed bilaterally with the manufacturers. It’s about 20 million additional cans from the German manufacturer Biontech alone. Negotiations were still ongoing with other promising vaccine manufacturers such as Curevac, IDT, and Moderna.
As for the app, Spahn had already responded to criticism of the app and specified its ideas for improvement in November. An improved version of the application was available for download at the end of the month. With the upgrade, among other things, risk verification can be performed several times a day.
The federal government’s corona warning app has been downloaded more than 24 million times to date. Experts estimate that it is actively used by around 22 million people. The effectiveness of the application increases the more people use it.
