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From our correspondent
BERLIN – The Germany concluded a bilateral agreement with BionTech-Pfizer by purchasing 30 million doses of Covid vaccine, which will be added to the 55.8 million quota assigned to the Federal Republic in the distribution of the 300 million doses ordered by the European Union. The news – that the Messenger Service had anticipated here, confirmed by a spokesman for the German Health Ministry.
At the same time, the minister Jens spahn announced that the Berlin government also aims to increase the production of the BionTech-Pfizer vaccine in its national territory, facilitating the operation of new plants. Spahn cited a Novartis factory, recently acquired by BionTech in Marburg, Hesse and currently undergoing renovation, that should be able to produce vaccines from February-March, significantly increasing the number of doses available.
Fears of achieving herd immunity
Behind the German decision to proceed with the bilateral purchase of 30 million extra doses, there is the concern of the federal government to have the necessary amount of vaccines available to control the pandemic by next fall.
Based on the times and purchasing methods decided by the European Union, this, according to the Berlin managers, would not be possible.
a fact that although the European Union has ordered a total of 1,300 million doses of the vaccine, At the moment, only a small part of them will be delivered with certainty: 300 million of the BioNTech-Pfizer version and 80 million (with an option of another 80 million) of the Modern American version (which has not yet been authorized by the EMA ), while Britain is already using both – here’s why).
From the BioNTech-Pfizer batch, on the basis of the European distribution mechanism, Germany will be entitled to 55.8 million doses. But since two doses per person are needed, 140 million would be needed to achieve herd immunity in the Federal Republic, which has a population of over 80 million.
Bild: Soon another bilateral agreement with Moderna
According to the weekly mirror, this will not be possible unless Berlin breaks European solidarity and starts buying doses of vaccines on its own. Exactly what is happening.
In the next few days, according to Image newspaper, could there be the new announcement of another bilateral order for vaccines from the American company Moderna, which would raise Germany’s vaccination capacity to 136 million doses, that is, just below the threshold for herd immunity.
According to research by mirror, the insufficient number of vaccines with respect to the target of herd immunity in Germany and Europe due to the attitude of the European Commission, which under pressure from the Paris government, would have withheld orders to BionTech-Pfizer, in an attempt to protect and achieve a kind of parity with Sanofi, the French pharmaceutical giant that is fighting for the development of another vaccine that, however, being based on recombinant proteins, takes more time. The procedure is longer and more complex and the studies have a delay of six months (here the explanation of the different vaccination techniques involved).
Buying more than one German company didn’t seem fair, a source told the weekly. It is a pity that in this case the health of the citizens is at stake. The Commission has denied and denies wanting to wait to protect Sanofi. On the contrary, it fights back, saying it has selected the most promising and advanced vaccines.
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