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Friday, December 18, 2020
To update
Three instead of five categories
Spahn deviates from vaccination recommendations
The start of the corona vaccination campaign is imminent in the EU. Due to the adjusted doses, there is a discussion about who gets it first. The Permanent Commission on Vaccination has prepared proposals for this. But Health Minister Spahn is not quite following them.
Preparations for the start of the corona vaccination in Germany, which is scheduled to start just after Christmas, are picking up speed. Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn wants to introduce and implement the ordinance, which defines the order in which citizens have the right to vaccination.
As the German publishing network reported, referring to the text of the regulation, apparently Spahn only partially follows the recommendations of the Standing Commission on Vaccination of the Robert Koch Institute. In its regulation only three groups are listed, which must be vaccinated one after another. Stiko suggested five categories.
Spahn defended deviations from Stiko’s recommendations. “Classifying into three groups allows a certain degree of flexibility on the site,” he told ZDF. However, the order in which citizens can receive vaccines has not changed, including the “definition of groups”. “We took care of 99 percent of that.”
At the same time, Spahn urged citizens to be patient. “Now we are starting with those over 80, the very old, those who need care and those who care for them,” Spahn said. This group is already so large that it “will shape vaccination in Germany in the coming weeks.” “I have to ask everyone else for patience.”
Admission probably Monday
Vaccines with highest priority According to the RND, people 80 years of age and older and caregivers at very high risk of infection should receive them. This group also includes nurses whose patients are at high risk for serious or fatal disease. TO second category Consequently, all people aged 70 and over, as well as those at high risk of developing a serious illness, are given a high priority. According to the RND, close contacts of people in need of care and pregnant women can be vaccinated, the same applies to people in asylum or homeless shelters.
the third group According to the report, it includes everyone 60 years of age and older or at higher risk of developing a serious illness. Employees “in positions of special relevance in state institutions”, such as governments, the police, the fire brigade, the education sector and the judiciary, should be vaccinated.
The vaccine developed by the companies Biontech and Pfizer should be approved on Monday in the EU and, therefore, also in Germany. The responsible European Medicines Agency, EMA, had advanced its decision on the vaccine by eight days. A positive decision is generally expected. The EMA also wants to advance its decision on a second coronavirus vaccine, from the American manufacturer Moderna, that is, six days before January 6, as it announced on Thursday.
Across the EU, vaccinations with the vaccine developed by Mainz-based company Biontech and its US partner Pfizer should start on December 27, according to Spahn. Since initially only a limited number of doses are available, the sequence of the vaccination campaign according to population groups is of great importance.
Early vaccinations are required for doctors
Medical President Klaus Reinhardt called for a preferred vaccination also for resident and outpatient physicians. It was “risky” to deal with the pandemic if these doctors were “lower” on the priority list, he told the “Rheinische Post.”
Medical practices formed “an important protective barrier for the already overloaded clinics,” emphasized the president of the German Medical Association. This wall should not have “cracks” from disease-related failures. Therefore, resident doctors and their employees should be vaccinated “as soon as possible”. Outpatient doctors also need special protection. You are in the front row when it comes to caring for people infected with corona.
Meanwhile, the general secretary of the FDP, Volker Wissing, criticized the federal government for the fact that the corona vaccination strategy is established by an ordinance of the Federal Ministry of Health and not by a law discussed in the Bundestag. “Our constitution says that essential questions of fundamental rights must be decided by parliament. For me, this is clearly an essential question of fundamental rights,” Wissing told ZDF. A Bundestag consultation would not have meant a longer delay in starting vaccination, Wissing said. A parliamentary debate would have been important, Wissing said. However, the most important thing for him is that the vaccination now starts quickly.
The Biontech Pfizer vaccine has already been approved and vaccination campaigns have started in several states, including the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada. In the US, Moderna should also be approved shortly. A vaccination commission voted Thursday to approve this vaccine.
The EU Commission is also negotiating with the US company Novavax over the purchase of 100 million doses of the corona vaccine. It is the seventh contract that the EU wants to sign with a pharmaceutical manufacturer to ensure batches. At the time the contract was signed, Europe would have a total of more than two billion doses of vaccines available.
