After the Corona vaccination summit: "The new school year must be a classroom school year"

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Lessons in the classroom: Hope for a "classroom year"

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Gregor Fischer / dpa

How upset was he on a scale from 1 to 10 after the vaccination summit with Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Prime Minister? "10". Thuringia's minister of education, Helmut Holter, did not hesitate to answer, saying that he was "very angry". His colleague Hendrik Tonne from Lower Saxony feels the same way. The two are among the few heads of department who - as requested by the federal government - had presented a specific timetable so that all schoolchildren from the age of twelve could be offered vaccinations in their federal state by the end of the summer holidays.

Thuringia had already launched an awareness campaign, there was talk of a "vaccination summer", syringes to protect against Covid-19 should be offered in vaccination centers, practices and schools. Lower Saxony also took the Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn literally and developed a concept that the state government proudly presented to the public at the beginning of the week. 450,000 students should therefore be vaccinated in the last two weeks of school before the holidays. A second vaccination should be given in the last two weeks of the summer vacation. Then the children and young people would be protected at the start of the new school year.

After the Bund-Länder round, the ministers of education now have to accept a sudden U-turn from Berlin, which was dubbed a “misunderstanding” on Thursday - and reconsider how they approach the coming school year and the vaccinations of the younger ones.

In any case, they do not want to abandon their plans completely, despite all odds.

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• Before the Corona vaccination summit: When is vaccination on the schedule? By Silke Fokken and Cornelia Schmergal

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Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn had promised the countries that would present a concept for vaccinating children and adolescents that there would be an "additional" vaccine before the vaccination summit. Tonne and Holter had based their plans on this promise. "As agreed, we had sent the concept to the Federal Minister of Health," explains Minister of Education Grant Hendrik Tonne (SPD) to SPIEGEL. He was "horrified and angry that Jens Spahn simply collected his promise again." Without the additional vaccinations that had been promised, the concept could not be implemented as planned.

It was only at the Prime Minister's Conference on Thursday that the Lower Saxony state government found out about the new line from the CDU Federal Minister of Health. "That is disappointing and bad news for all students who, after the difficult time that lay behind them, now belong to the focus of their efforts," said Tonne. For the implementation of his vaccination concept, he had planned an additional million vaccine doses, which are now missing. Holter said his strategy "just fell apart".

After the vaccination summit, Berlin's governing mayor Michael Müller had stated that in the past few weeks the impression had arisen that there should be an extra vaccination campaign for children and adolescents, but the Federal Ministry of Health had promised too much.

Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder justified this with the fact that there is no such thing as an “infinite vaccine”.

You have to "manage wisely" with it.

If the vaccination prioritization is lifted nationwide, all pupils from the age of twelve should now be able to apply for a vaccination appointment from June 7th - just like all other people.

After the European Medicines Agency (Ema) approved the Biontech / Pfizer vaccine for children from the age of twelve on Friday, nothing stands in the way formally.

The Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) is still reluctant to make a general recommendation and wants to carefully weigh up the risks and benefits.

A decision should only be made in about a week.

As things stand now, it looks as if the committee only wants to recommend vaccination to particularly vulnerable children, such as the chronically ill.

Udo Beckmann, Chairman of the Association for Education and Upbringing (VBE), was critical of the planned vaccination campaigns anyway: "The debate had assumed a dynamic that hardly corresponded to reality," he told SPIEGEL.

"While people from prioritization groups 2 and 3 are still waiting for vaccination appointments, it is simply not possible to reserve appropriate contingents for children from the age of 12 unless additional vaccination dose contingents can be made available at the same time."

In the end, it depends on how the federal states organize the vaccinations - and distribute the vaccines.

The Federal Ministry of Health assumes that almost two thirds of the 5.4 million schoolchildren in the affected age group want to be vaccinated.

That would be just under 3.2 million people.

Children should not stand in line

In any case, Lower Saxony wants to stick to the plan to offer children and adolescents from the age of twelve a vaccination offer if possible, corresponding tests are currently underway.

A corresponding recommendation from Stiko is a prerequisite.

Minister of Education Tonne says: “Basically, if the prioritization ceases to apply nationwide on June 7th, children and young people can also be vaccinated.

We will also drive this forward in Lower Saxony. "

His colleague Holter from Thuringia is also committed to wanting to offer all children from the age of twelve a vaccination offer by the end of the summer holidays, so that they will have at least the first dose by the new school year: “We want to focus on this group and make sure of it that the students don't have to queue at the back of the line. "

What this should look like in Thuringia has yet to be worked out.

If the minister of education has its way, certain vaccination times could, for example, be reserved for families, something that has already been done with the special needs and primary school teachers.

"On Sundays, for example, vaccination appointments could only be given to parents and their children," says Holter.

"Then the whole family can get vaccinated together."

Because only the Biontech / Pfizer vaccine is approved for younger people, this vaccine should be given priority to this group.

After all, there are other vaccines for others.

"I don't want a discussion of envy between the generations," emphasized the Minister of Education, "but the point now is to create the conditions for us to be able to start safe school operations after the holidays at the beginning of September."

The fact that as many students as possible can be vaccinated is not a mandatory requirement, but in addition to regular rapid tests and hygiene concepts it is an important complementary measure on the way to a »corona-safe school«.

more on the subject

• Reactions after the vaccination summit: Little hope for the new school year by Silke Fokken

• Benefits and risks: How useful is vaccination for children and adolescents?

• Corona vaccinations for children: Stiko expert defends himself against pressure from politics

• Vaccines for children and adolescents: countries fear additional bottlenecks in the vaccination campaign

The rules according to which the new school year will run is still uncertain.

Berlin's Prime Minister Müller emphasized that the number of cases among younger people in the capital was higher than the average, so he had to exercise "caution".

Bavaria does not start the summer holidays until late and has already changed the limit values ​​in advance.

From the end of June, with a seven-day incidence of 100, normal face-to-face lessons should be possible, instead of the previous 50. Teachers' associations insist that the stricter limit values ​​remain and that the recommendations of the Robert Koch Institute will be followed in the future.

Holter, on the other hand, emphasizes: "We have to come to more normalcy." After the summer holidays, school operations must be organized in the interests of educational equity regardless of the number of cases.

The minister of education wants to lift the obligation to test in the future so that children who do not want to be tested can sit in the classroom again.

Incidentally, like all students who do not want to be vaccinated.

Holter demands: “We have to get all children into schools.

The new school year has to be a face-to-face school year. «All other measures, including protection against infection, should be subordinate to this.

According to the minister, the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (KMK) intends to take a corresponding decision at its next meeting.

The committee meets on June 10th.