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Jens Spahn's flop: Despite the campaign week, the first vaccinations stagnate

2021-09-20T14:36:11.781Z


Jens Spahn wanted to revive the faltering vaccination campaign with special campaigns. At the end of the week, the Minister of Health speaks of a success - but the actual numbers are dreary.


Enlarge image

Jens Spahn discussed at an election event last Friday in the Rhineland-Palatinate churches (Sieg) with anti-vaccination opponents

Photo: Rene Traut / imago images / Rene Traut

The week of action proclaimed by Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) failed to achieve its goal of reviving the stagnant Covid19 vaccination campaign in Germany.

According to data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the number of vaccinations in the past week increased slightly compared to the previous week: from 1.29 to 1.36 million doses.

But this was mainly due to significantly more booster vaccinations.

In contrast, the particularly important number of first vaccinations remained at a low level.

So far, the RKI has reported almost 510,000 cans for the campaign week - compared to almost 518,000 cans in the week before;

but there could still be late registrations.

The last time there were so few first vaccinations within a week in mid-February.

According to the RKI data, the proportion of people vaccinated for the first time increased by just 0.6 percentage points: from 66.5 to 67.1 percent.

63.1 percent are fully vaccinated;

plus 0.9 percent compared to the previous week.

Chaotic organization

During the vaccination campaign week - for which the federal states, municipalities, retailers and various associations and organizations had declared their support - simple vaccination options were to be offered to citizens across the country under the motto "#HierWirdGeimpft".

Unvaccinated people should be approached in a targeted manner.

But apparently the organization of the vaccination week was already chaotic.

At a conference of the federal and state health ministers two weeks ago, Spahn presented the project - and asked the states to report back to him with vaccination campaigns suitable for social media.

A little later, the minister warned his colleagues in the federal states: Only two federal states had reported back with ideas.

In countries like Brandenburg or Bremen, no additional campaigns were planned during the vaccination week.

Spahn himself describes the stagnating numbers as "success".

Associations, organizations, private initiatives and many volunteers had set up around 1,500 vaccination campaigns across Germany, the minister told the Funke media group.

"Not seeing any further decline is a success."

Spahn speculated that of the roughly 500,000 first vaccinations last week, around half could be traced back to actions.

The CDU politician did not say how a further decline in primary vaccinations should be prevented after the end of the week of action.

More than 27 million people in Germany are still unvaccinated.

Among them are around 18 million people who are older than 12 years and for whom at least one vaccine has already been approved.

The manufacturers Biontech and Pfizer also want to apply for worldwide approval of their vaccine "Comirnaty" for children aged five to eleven in the near future;

According to study data, the effectiveness is similar to that of adults.

However, Spahn does not expect approval in Germany until the first quarter of 2022 - and further time will then pass before the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) makes a recommendation.

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Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2021-09-20

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