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Researchers around the world are working hard to develop a vaccine against the coronavirus. The American pharmaceutical company Moderna is testing a promising active ingredient. Its name: mRNA-1273. A study with several thousand subjects is currently underway in the US.
Swiss researchers would also like to help with development. A clinical study would have been started, but the Federal Office of Public Health (BAG) is slowing down, according to the “SonntagsZeitung”.
Months ago, the Swiss Institute of Public and Tropical Health and the University of Basel submitted a request to the FOPH for financial support for the study, in which the University Hospitals of Basel, Zurich and Geneva and the Cantonal Hospital of St. Gallen participate. . It should cost eight million francs. But a federal decision is still pending.
“The teams could start tomorrow”
Marcel Tanner, an epidemiologist at the University of Basel and a member of the federal scientific working group, cannot understand the hesitation. “I don’t know what remains to be clarified,” he tells “SonntagsZeitung.” “The teams could start tomorrow.”
Cooperation in the development of vaccines is important for Switzerland, he says. “Only by participating in research and development can we have a greater voice in the distribution of the vaccine and throughout the world.”
The Federal Office of Public Health informs upon request that the application is “currently under evaluation.”
SVPers are the most skeptical about vaccination
Meanwhile, a survey by publisher Tamedia shows that only a small majority of the population is currently eligible for vaccination. 54 percent of the 15,000 respondents online answered the question with a yes, 41 percent are against vaccination.
Men are more likely to agree to vaccination than women. While 61 percent of the men surveyed favor a vaccine, only 48 percent of the women did. There is a big difference by age group: 70 percent of those 65 and older, those most at risk, would get vaccinated and only 45 percent of those 18 to 35 years old.
If you look at the political orientation, GLP and SP supporters are more likely to be vaccinated at 65 and 64 percent, respectively. Of the FDP supporters, 61 percent would be willing, of CVP supporters 59 percent. In the case of the Greens it is still 53 percent and in the case of the SVP the proportion of those who would be vaccinated is still 41 percent. (lha / SDA)
