New order: who will be vaccinated and when?

Vaccinations in Germany are progressing painfully slowly and painstakingly, so the impression is. In the future, it should be faster and more flexible, also thanks to an adapted vaccination sequence. Who is it and when? The overview.

All adults in Germany should have their turn for corona vaccination in the next few months, when? It also depends on the availability of approved vaccines. The first deliveries of the AstraZeneca vaccine arrived over the weekend. Starting today, a modified corona vaccination ordinance should also go into effect. The core questions can now be answered more clearly:

When should people over 80 years of age get vaccinated?

Around the change to the second quarter at the end of March. This is what Health Minister Jens Spahn promised. This also applies to others in the first group with the highest priority: residents of nursing homes, nurses in nursing homes, staff in intensive care units, emergency rooms, emergency services. A “vaccination offer” will be made to the 800,000 residents in mid-February; so far, 630,000 have been vaccinated. Like the next in this group, the focus is now on outpatient services.

What will change with the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine?

It is the third approved preparation after the BioNTech / Pfizer and Moderna substances. In the absence of data on the effect in older people, only people between the ages of 18 and 64 will have it initially. With the amended vaccination ordinance, employees in care facilities, as well as intensive care and corona wards in this age group, must now be vaccinated primarily with the substance AstraZeneca.

What does priority vaccination against AstraZeneca mean for younger people?

“This allows us to vaccinate and protect the elderly and nursing staff faster,” Spahn promises. By February 19, 1.75 million cans will be delivered to the federal states and vaccinated. The next delivery on March 2 is expected to include 1.47 million cans. While Moderna and BioNTech’s vaccines are 94 and 95 percent effective, according to a new study in AstraZeneca, it’s only 76 percent after the first shot and up to 82 percent after the second. Some nurses should fear a “two-class vaccination.”

When should people age 70 and older get vaccinated?

As of April, in group two with high priority. Currently, around 7.3 million people between the ages of 70 and 80 live in Germany and 5.7 million in the age group 80 and over. So far, BioNTech / Pfizer and Moderna have delivered 4.2 million cans. About 3.2 million cans of AstraZeneca will be added in early March. BioNTech should have more than 2.5 million more cans by the end of February and 182,400 cans of Moderna by mid-February.

When should people with previous illnesses get vaccinated?

Some people should be preferred in group two. This group should now also protect people with cancer without stopping tumor growth, with severe chronic lung disease, with chronic liver or kidney disease, with diabetes with high blood sugar levels, with obesity with a higher body mass index to 30, with dementia, intellectual disability, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, severe depression, trisomy 21 and after organ transplants, and also people who have been certified by a doctor as being at high risk of a severe course of Covid-19.

Who else should get vaccinated in group two?

Up to two close contact persons of people in need of care at home or pregnant women (pregnant women generally do not), as well as doctors, police and law enforcement officers, especially for demonstrations, employees of health services and clinics, residents of homeless people. and accommodation for asylum seekers and carers of the mentally disabled. For group two as a whole, anyone under 65 should receive the AstraZeneca vaccine as a priority.

Should Children Get Vaccinated?

The BioNTech vaccine is approved for ages 16 and up. The president of the Paul Ehrlich Institute, Klaus Cichutek, awaits the results of the studies of Moderna and others on possible vaccines for children and adolescents in the course of the first half of the year.

What questions remain?

It is not yet clear whether people who have already been vaccinated are at additional risk of infection. So far there is no reliable data that people who have been vaccinated no longer transmit the virus. The corona outbreak among residents of a nursing home in Osnabrück who have already been vaccinated also raises questions. It’s also not clear how effective vaccines are against highly contagious virus variants. According to the Paul Ehrlich Institute, there are indications that it “can cope with the UK variant (ie the British) quite well, with the South African and Brazilian variant perhaps worse.”

What criticisms are there of the vaccination regulations?

Doctors in private practice don’t want to wait that long. “Those who treat, care medically and protect others every day must also protect themselves,” says the president of the National Association of Health Insurance Physicians, Andreas Gassen. The Foundation for Patient Protection criticizes that too little research is being done on which diseases still lead to serious courses. Therefore, younger patients with serious illnesses are “exposed to the individual decisions of a local health department.”

Who comes after group two?

Even according to the new regulation, the group includes three people over 60, people with other diseases such as asthma or heart failure, as well as teachers, educators, police, supermarket employees, for example. Only then should everyone else follow. Chancellor Angela Merkel has promised: by the end of the summer, everyone in Germany should receive a “vaccination offer”. If this just means a promised date or a specific vaccine, it remains vague with this formulation.

Is the vaccination sequence always strictly followed?

No. In Saxony-Anhalt, some 300 police officers from the Stendal district have already been vaccinated, as well as the mayor and 10 councilors of Halle, allegedly with leftover cans. The vaccination of members of the geriatrics directorate of the Hannover Langenhagen Region Clinic and the case of a 79-year-old person with previous serious illnesses near Munich who did not get an early vaccination appointment also made headlines.