Experts and politicians on Saturday criticized the German government for failing to ensure a sufficient supply of vaccine doses before the country’s coronavirus vaccine.
As a member of the EU vaccine acquisition plan, Germany is dependent on European-level regulators to grant vaccine authorization to prevent COVID-19 infection.
But it has taken the EU longer than countries like the UK, the US and Canada to give their approval.
So far, only the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine is allowed in EU member states, but the bloc in general only placed an order for 300 million doses over the summer, believing there would be more vaccine alternatives.
Frauke Zipp, a neurologist and member of the advisory Leopoldina Academy of Sciences, criticized German lawmakers on Saturday for their lack of foresight on vaccine acquisition.
“I consider the current situation to be a serious failure,” he said The world diary. “Why didn’t they ask for a lot more vaccine over the summer to be safe?”
BioNTech founders said Friday they were working to boost production after being pressured to fill the gaps caused by the EU’s mistake.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn has rejected any suggestions the government has taken into account in its way of vaccinating the country. “Things are going exactly as planned,” he told RTL.
Spahn said he predicted a deficit at first and that the government should “give priority” to who would be vaccinated, but that all residents of nursing homes will receive inoculation by the end of January.
Vaccination is a “race against time”
Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn defended the EU’s vaccination strategy at German radio station RBB, saying the Commission had secured almost two billion doses with six different manufacturers.
However, Karl Lauterbach, a health expert for the center – left Social Democrats, told the Rheinische Post newspaper that Brussels ’failure to buy more of the Modern vaccine was“ unfortunate ”.
“It was clear from the start that the Modern vaccine was highly effective and could be used by GPs.”
Lauterbach believes it is too late for the Modern vaccine to play an important role in Germany’s short-term vaccination needs. He also criticized the EU for not ordering more BioNTech-Pfizer vaccines at first.
Bernd Riexinger, co-chair of the left-wing Socialist Party, called directly on Health Minister Jens Spahn to ensure the subsequent production of BioNTech-Pfizer blows.
He said that, given the spread of the new COVID-19 variant in the UK, “a successful vaccine strategy is also a race against time”.
The lock should not end too soon
Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet with state prime ministers on Tuesday to discuss a likely extension of the current closure, which will end on January 10th.
Prior to these talks, Uwe Janssens, president of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine, called on the government to rethink its plans.
He told the Rheinischer Post that hard limits should be maintained, even if the government reaches its infection rate of 50 per 100,000 people.
“Intensive care physicians advise that no relaxation be considered until the value of the incidence is less than 25 new infections per 100,000 population per week,” Janssens said.
According to the Robert Koch Institute, the current infection rate in Germany is 141.2. However, this number varies greatly across the country, with some regions of Saxony recording rates of over 500.