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The Federal Ministry of Health assumes that there will be a vaccine against Covid-19 early next year at the earliest. Currently, several vaccines are in the third phase of clinical trials. Hundreds to thousands of people are tested: how safe the vaccine is, how it works, and how high the dose should be.
Federal and state governments advise on procedures
According to the Federal Ministry of Health, there are currently discussions between the federal government and the states about how the distribution of potential vaccines should work in practice. The Bild newspaper reported that the federal government had already asked the federal states to provide delivery addresses for the vaccine.
According to this, there should be 60 vaccination centers nationwide. The Federal Ministry of Health did not want to confirm it. The Federal Minister of Health, Spahn, had spoken out in favor of these centers on several occasions, for example, in the exhibition halls. The Bavarian Ministry of Health is currently developing a vaccination strategy which will be presented to the Council of Ministers shortly.
Media storage at minus 70 degrees
Thomas Mertens, president of the Permanent Commission on Vaccination (STIKO), is also in favor of vaccination centers. If it’s about prioritizing, you can’t burden general practitioners with that. So, for example, you might be faced with the dilemma that you would have to turn down a patient who has been coming for a consultation for a long time, but is not yet online.
Another point in favor of vaccination centers is that the vaccines will probably initially come in large vials, up to a hundred doses in a puncture vial. Family doctors would have to vaccinate many people in a short period of time, otherwise the substance would be spoiled. Also, the first vaccines will likely have to be transported and stored at temperatures as low as minus 70 degrees, which will require special refrigerators.
Experts want to use existing infrastructure
Roland Stahl of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians notes: Vaccination centers make sense in cities, less in rural areas. Above all, it must be decided regionally how vaccinations will be carried out. Structures that have already been established to combat the corona pandemic should also be used, for example, corona practices that only treat these patients at certain times.
Risk groups have priority
What is clear is that there will not be enough vaccines for everyone at first. That is why the Federal Ministry of Health has commissioned the Permanent Vaccination Commission together with the Leopoldina National Academy of Sciences and the German Ethics Council to develop a prioritization concept.
Claudia Wiesemann, former vice president of the Ethics Council, suggests: First, the vaccine should be administered to older people and those with previous illnesses. People who are at high risk of infection, such as healthcare workers or teachers, should also be prioritized.
Even if one or more vaccines are available early next year, it will take months before enough people are vaccinated. According to experts, about 60 percent of the population must be immune. Only then can the disease not spread further.
