[ad_1]
Friday, January 1, 2021
Strong criticism of the organization
The Federal Government Maintains Prospects for New Vaccine Deliveries
The great vaccination campaign against the coronavirus has begun. But uncertainty remains about how many doses the federal states will actually receive. The Ministry of Health is now giving figures and awaiting approval of the Moderna vaccine.
The federal government expects 2.68 million doses of Biontech’s corona vaccine by early February. The next delivery to the countries is still scheduled for January 8, announced the Ministry of Health on Twitter. A total of four delivery dates are planned through February 1 inclusive. This corresponds to the already known plans, according to which approximately 670,000 doses of vaccination should be delivered initially per week. Including last year’s deliveries, there would be a total of 3.98 million cans.
In the course of the month, however, another vaccine from the manufacturer Moderna could be added. The ministry expects this to be approved on January 6. “We will then quickly coordinate exact delivery schedules for this vaccine with the EU and the company,” he said. More approvals are also likely to take place during the first quarter.
Since the start of the large-scale vaccination campaign, there have been repeated criticisms that initially there are not enough vaccines available for everyone. Manufacturer Biontech is now investigating whether more can be produced with new cooperation partners. However, this cannot be done overnight, said Biontech boss Ugur Sahin. It will not be known until the end of January if more can be produced. Sahin also expressed criticism of the EU purchasing strategy.
“Advanced discussions” with the EU
At the same time, Biontech announced that it would deliver more vaccines to the EU than previously planned. The company is “in advanced discussions about whether and how we can provide more doses of vaccines from Europe for Europe this year,” said Sahin of the German press agency. The EU Commission had jointly concluded a framework agreement for up to 300 million doses of the manufacturer’s vaccines for the 27 states – a firm order for 200 million doses and an option for 100 million more, which was also drafted this week. Additional amounts are now being negotiated.
“Due to the current high number of infections, a rapid supply of vaccines is particularly important,” Sahin emphasized. “We are working with the EU to further expand our production capacities and provide additional doses of vaccine.” When asked, a company spokeswoman would not say how quickly a contract for additional deliveries could be concluded and what quantities are involved. The EU Commission also only confirmed that there are “advanced talks” about new deliveries in 2021.
The EU Commission has asked not only Biontech, but also five other companies with promising vaccine candidates, a total of two billion doses for around 450 million EU citizens. But the other means are not approved yet. “The EU’s strategy to secure various vaccines is understandable and sensible. Our common interest is to provide vaccines to people who want them,” Sahin said.
Strong criticism from Berlin
Berlin Health Senator Dilek Kalayci is outraged by the ongoing lack of clarity regarding deliveries of additional vaccines. “Now I await a clarification from the federal Minister of Health, Jens Spahn, and finally a reliable and trustworthy list of the vaccine that is to come,” said the SPD politician. “We don’t even know if the delivery now announced for January 8 is additional or just early,” Kalayci said. “And now Biontech apparently doesn’t know what it can do or what it can offer. Therefore, we cannot implement the prioritization that the federal government has given us.”
The Biontech and Pfizer vaccine was approved in the EU just before Christmas and has been in use for a few days. However, there has recently been a back and forth over how many cans Germany and thus the federal states will receive in the near future.
According to previous information from the health administration, Berlin has so far received around 60,000 doses of vaccines. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), as of December 31, about 9,000 of these had been administered. According to the RKI, some 165,000 people have been vaccinated against Corona with the Biontech vaccine across the country. However, reports to the RKi sometimes lag behind the number of actual vaccines in the federal states. Initially, people were vaccinated in nursing homes, nurses, and hospital employees.
