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Syringe with Biontech vaccine
Photo: Jan Woitas / dpa
For the Corona vaccination center in the Friesland district, the case is a catastrophe: Because an employee drew saline solution into the vaccination syringes in at least six, but possibly in thousands of cases, many people in the region cannot be sure of their vaccination protection.
According to the authorities, it is "a total of 8557 people who may have received no vaccination protection in whole or in part, although they assume", as District Administrator Sven Ambrosy (SPD) said.
You can all get another dose now.
According to the district administrator, around 3,600 people have already registered for the follow-up vaccinations.
The suspect only let her lawyers say that there were no other days besides the six admitted cases on which the vaccine was "not administered in the prescribed amount".
The public prosecutor's office is still investigating the woman on suspicion of dangerous bodily harm.
SPIEGEL:
Mr. Ambrosy, the accused claims that the filling of the vaccination syringes with saline solution was a "one-off incident."
The police, on the other hand, assume that there may be further cases.
How do you deal with that?
Ambrosy:
According to witness statements and the unambiguous risk assessment by the police, we cannot rule out that other people were vaccinated with saline solution while the accused were on duty.
Because of the silence of the accused, we cannot say with certainty how many people are really affected.
That makes things so monstrous: 8.7 percent of the population in our district are potentially affected by the unclear situation.
SPIEGEL:
These are the 8,557 people you mentioned.
So many of them may have received the correct vaccine as intended.
How did you decide how to proceed?
Ambrosy:
The mass appeal was the result of a weighing up and is purely a precautionary measure in the context of danger prevention: A third vaccination safely protects those who might be affected and has no other disadvantages.
We have therefore decided, in coordination with the Ministry of Health and the Lower Saxony State Health Office and after consulting the Robert Koch Institute and the permanent vaccination commission, to offer a third vaccination to all people who may be affected and to recommend it.
SPIEGEL:
Who is responsible for running the vaccination center?
Ambrosy:
The vaccination center in Schortens is operated by the Jeverland district association of the German Red Cross (DRK).
There the accused was employed as a registered nurse.
As far as I know, she had a certificate of good conduct without any entries.
We have a contract, according to which the DRK owes us the legally impeccable performance of the medical work.
If there is any reason that this agreement has been violated, we will check this and take further steps if necessary.
SPIEGEL:
How did the incident come to light?
Ambrosy:
The accused had turned to a colleague at the vaccination center and stated that she had dropped a vaccine ampoule, which is why she had drawn up six syringes with only saline solution.
One day later, the colleague informed an employee of the district, who then informed the responsible department head and he immediately informed me.
As a result, the accused was immediately banned from the house and the police called in, who have been investigating since then.
SPIEGEL:
Have you tightened the safety precautions in the vaccination center in the meantime?
Ambrosy:
Immediately after the incident in April, we introduced a four-eyes principle - previously it was a recommendation from the state.
The injection syringes are now always drawn up under the supervision of another person.
The procedure is now mandatory throughout Lower Saxony.
I highly recommend making this mandatory nationwide, where it is not yet.
SPIEGEL:
So far, according to you, around 3,600 people have registered for a re-vaccination.
Do you fear negative effects on the vaccination campaign?
Ambrosy:
We understand that trust has been shaken after the incident. We do everything to prevent this from happening again. At the same time, we are faced with a basic problem: it is about alleged misconduct by an individual accused. From this individual case we cannot draw conclusions about the thousands of other vaccination helpers in Germany. Many honest, hardworking people work for us in Schortens. They suffer very much from the fact that they are now being placed under general suspicion.