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Scientific advisers to the federal government rely on the use of corona vaccines. But it is clear that there will not be enough vaccines in the beginning. Therefore, initially preference should be given to risk groups.
According to the recommendation of the Permanent Commission on Vaccination (STIKO), the elderly and members of other risk groups, as well as health workers, should have a preference for vaccines against Covid-19. This stems from a position paper that STIKO developed together with the German Ethics Council and the Leopoldina National Academy of Sciences and which was presented in Berlin.
Consequently, people who have key roles in “areas of general interest” should also receive priority vaccination. These include employees of the police force, health authorities or schools. “We have to do it in such a way that in the end the greatest benefit is for the entire population,” said STIKO President Thomas Mertens. So far there is no approved vaccine against the coronavirus. However, experts were confident that vaccination would go a long way in the fight against the pandemic. “We are rightly waiting for a vaccine,” Mertens said.
The president of the German Ethics Council, Alena Buyx, noted that if the vaccine is available, it will probably be very scarce. Therefore, priority should be given until there is enough for everyone. Above all, preference should be given to those who are at the highest risk of becoming seriously ill or dying from the virus. In addition, those who were ill would have to get vaccinated quickly and therefore themselves would have a higher risk of Covid 19 infection.
No general vaccination requirement
Furthermore, those in whose vicinity vulnerable groups are found should be protected with vaccines, as well as those who contribute to maintaining public life. A general mandatory vaccination should be ruled out, he added. The STIKO of the Robert Koch Institute is responsible for vaccination recommendations in Germany. When considering a vaccination strategy, the committee consulted with experts from the Ethics Council and Leopoldina, based in Halle.
The federal government had already made it clear that risk groups such as the elderly and people with prior illnesses, as well as personnel in important areas such as health care, are in focus. “Right at the front are, of course, nurses, doctors and also people who belong to a risk group. There are quite a few in our country,” Chancellor Angela Merkel said.
According to the Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn, up to 40 percent of people in Germany are at risk from the Corona crisis. “We have 23 million Germans over 60,” said the CDU politician of the newspaper “Bild”. “We are a prosperous country with diseases of civilization: diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity. All risk factors for this virus, as well as for many infectious diseases, by the way.”
Spahn asked all Germans for a broad discussion about which population groups should get vaccinated against Corona first if a vaccine is available. “I think it is important that there is a political debate, but also a social one at every lunch, in the family or at work,” Spahn said of “Bild”. You have to decide who should be vaccinated first: the one with the highest occupational risk. The one at risk. Or the one who has a lot of contact with others. The CDU politician announced that the Bundestag would also deal with this issue.
Was the national vaccination strategy decided today?
According to a report from the news portal “ThePioneer”, the national vaccination strategy of the Federal Ministry of Health will be decided today by the Corona cabinet. Central documentation of vaccines is also planned. “For this purpose, a web-based data portal will be used, which will be developed by the RKI before the start of vaccination activities in Germany,” the document portal quotes. The government intends to provide the most complete and up-to-date description possible of which sections of the population have already been vaccinated. Consequently, non-personal information such as age, sex, place of residence and indication of vaccination, as well as the place and date of vaccination and the vaccine product with batch number, must be recorded.
In addition, seven possible vaccines are named for which approval is requested within the EU. Among them, that of the Biontech company from Mainz, which cooperates with the US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, and that of Curevac from Tübingen. “Some vaccine manufacturers have announced a possible first delivery of vaccine doses to EU member states in 2020,” he says. “As soon as sufficient quantities of vaccine are available, the goal will be to transfer vaccination activities to the regular system.”
The health ministers of the federal states and Spahn agreed on Friday a uniform and coordinated procedure for the supply of vaccines. The decision of the conference of health ministers calls for the federal government to obtain and finance vaccines and for the federal states to establish vaccination centers. The vaccines are said to be delivered by the Bundeswehr or by the manufacturer. Vaccination doses should be distributed to federal states according to the proportion of the population.
13,363 new infections in Germany
But there is no vaccine on the market yet, and the number of new corona infections remains high. German health authorities reported 13,363 new corona infections to the RKI in 24 hours. That’s about 2,650 fewer cases than on Sunday, according to information from the RKI on Monday morning. The number of cases registered is typically lower on Mondays, in part because fewer tests are conducted on weekends. Last Monday, the number of new infections reported was 12,097. The peak was reached on Saturday with 23,399 reported cases.
According to the RKI, a total of 671,868 people throughout Germany have been infected with Sars-CoV-2 since the start of the pandemic (until November 9 at 00:00). The number of deaths related to the virus rose by 63 to a total of 11,352 by Monday. The RKI estimates that around 429,600 people have recovered.
According to RKI’s situation report on Sunday night, the so-called seven-day R was 1.01 (previous day: 1.04). That means that ten infected people infected another ten people on average. The value represents the appearance of the infection 8 to 16 days ago. If it is below 1 for a long time, the infection process subsides.
