The UK is already vaccinated against the corona virus.
The first RNA vaccines are about to be approved for us too: How safe are the new vaccines?
The most important answers.
The
corona vaccination should
also be approved in Germany
by the end of this year
.
In other countries, vaccination against the
Sars-CoV-2 virus
has already been
administered.
But there are also concerns.
Here are the most important answers on the subject of
corona vaccines
.
Munich - A candidate has already achieved the goal with emergency approval: In Great Britain, the
corona vaccination
started on Tuesday
.
There and in the Gulf state of Bahrain, “
BNT162b2
” was approved, the vaccine from the Mainz manufacturer
Biontech
and its US partner Pfizer.
Germans and other EU citizens still have to be patient: the European Medicines Agency (EMA) wants to have examined the application for approval by the end of the year.
How do corona vaccines of the "new generation" work?
Current vaccines usually contain killed pathogens or parts of them, as Prof. Michael Hölscher, Director of the Tropical Institute at the Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU) Munich Clinic, explains.
The immune system creates antibodies against these structures - you are protected.
Hölscher calls it “the old way of vaccination”.
The future belongs to a "newer generation of vaccines": RNA vaccines like those from Biontech / Pfizer, that of the Tübingen company CureVac and the US manufacturer Moderna, but also vector vaccines like that of the British-Swedish manufacturer AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.
With these vaccines, only the
instructions for a virus protein are brought
into human cells.
The cell's own factories use it to produce the proteins - and these in turn
trigger an immune reaction
.
Does the corona vaccine threaten genetic changes?
RNA vaccines are "
not genetic vaccines
", explains Prof. Ulrike Protzer, virologist at the Helmholtz Center and at the Technical University of Munich (TUM).
They made use of a natural principle.
Every cell produces short-lived nucleic acid sequences, the messenger RNAs (mRNAs), in order to use these instructions to form different proteins.
"There are thousands of such
mRNA molecules
in the cell,
" says the expert.
They usually do not even get into the cell nucleus, in which the genetic material is located - and even if they do, they cannot simply be built into it.
Because human genome consists of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), a completely different molecule, explains Hölscher.
Let DNA be like a printing plate with which you print a cookbook, be the messenger RNA a copy of a recipe - a handout that is disposed of after cooking.
Messenger RNA is also only read a few times and breaks down after a few hours.
Corona vaccine: why did it take so long to develop?
No
RNA vaccine has
yet been
approved - despite major technical advances, it has only recently been possible to produce such a vaccine in larger quantities, according to Protzer.
Hölscher refers to the financial risk.
He estimates that it would cost around half a billion euros to develop a new vaccine.
Not everyone makes it to approval.
Companies calculated exactly - and in the past there was no project for which the risk was worthwhile.
+
Vaccination pioneer at 90: Margaret Keenan from Coventry is the first to receive the new corona vaccine from Biontech and Pfizer after its emergency approval in the UK.
© Jacob King / PA Wire / dpa
Why is everything suddenly going so fast now?
From research on the closely related first
Sars virus
and the
MERS virus
, we already knew what the design of the vaccine should look like, explains Protzer.
When the hereditary sequence of
Sars-CoV-2
was available, you could start immediately.
The pre-clinical examinations saved two to three years.
The clinical phases one and two were combined, the decisive phase three quickly followed.
Production started even before approval.
This was possible because the EU and the governments of individual countries relieve the companies of the financial risk.
“You didn't take a security risk, but a financial one,” says Protzer.
"The clinical studies were carried out normally."
Rising number of corona infections: what speaks against an emergency approval?
Unlike in Great Britain, the test regulations in the EU do not provide for this.
Protzer thinks that's right.
“It's not enough for one company to say it's all good,” she says.
Like the TÜV, regulatory authorities would have to "put the data through its paces." And: "Whether you start vaccinating two or three weeks earlier is ultimately not decisive," she says.
"We can easily get the lead in time through good organization".
That is our strength in Germany.
Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2: How effective are the RNA vaccines?
Biontech and Pfizer state that their vaccine has a protective effect of around 95 percent.
In a study with around 43,000 participants, 170 people were infected.
162 of them had received a placebo, a drug-free drug.
Protection was similarly high in people aged 65 and over.
This also applies to the RNA vaccine from Moderna: Its protective effect is given as 94.1 percent.
In order to achieve this, a second vaccination after 21 days is necessary for both vaccines.
How long the protection will last is not yet known.
However, some experts reckoned that the vaccination could even produce slightly better immune protection than an
infection with the virus
itself, says Protzer.
And: Among formerly infected people, a renewed infection is still the exception today, after nine months, says Hölscher.
Coronavirus pandemic: How compatible are RNA vaccines?
If serious side effects occur after vaccination, they usually occur early.
Such have not yet been observed for the vaccines from Biontech and Moderna.
But lighter symptoms can occur - according to Hölscher, more often than with influenza vaccines.
They ranged from a headache to tiredness, a pulling in the arm to a high temperature.
The complaints usually last a maximum of 24 hours.
And: They are a sign that the immune system is starting to work, Protzer said.
Vaccination against Corona (Sars-CoV-2) - Can you rule out all risks?
“There is no such thing as zero risk,” says Protzer.
“So far, the safety data for the vaccination looks very good.
But you haven't vaccinated millions of people either. ”Very rare side effects might only be noticed if you vaccinate a lot more people.
Autoimmune diseases that vaccination critics point to cannot be completely ruled out.
But that applies to every new drug and every new vaccine.
Ultimately, it is a matter of weighing up: “The risk of a serious vaccine side effect is less than one in 50,000,” says Protzer.
"The risk of getting seriously ill with corona over the age of 66 is ten to 40 percent, depending on age." Five to 30 percent of older patients die in hospital.
So the risk is much higher.
Older people in particular benefited greatly from the vaccination.
Sars-CoV-2: Will vaccination centers against the coronavirus become a bottleneck?
Protzer doesn't think so.
"This is where we benefit from our organizational talent," she says.
In the initial phase, both experts consider vaccination centers to be a good idea to also take pressure off general practitioners.
First of all, vulnerable groups such as the elderly and the sick, as well as medical staff, should be vaccinated.
Mobile vaccination teams that go to nursing homes should complement the centers, says Protzer.
The vaccination will later move to the general practitioner’s practices.
Especially since the storage of the vaccines is less problematic than expected.
The Biontech vaccine must be stored in ultra-low freezers at around minus 70 degrees.
However, it is delivered in freezer boxes, in which, according to the manufacturer, it can be kept for 15 days.
Thawed, it can be stored in the refrigerator for up to five days.
The AstraZeneca vector vaccine could even be stored there permanently - provided it is approved.
There have recently been uncertainties about study data.
Corona Pandemic: Will Vaccines Bring Back Normality?
If all goes well, many particularly vulnerable people could be protected in a few months.
There should be enough vaccine for mass vaccinations by summer - and you have to use the summer to build up broad immunity for autumn and winter, says Protzer.
It is not clear whether vaccinated people who are themselves protected may infect others because the virus briefly reproduces in the throat.
The expert thinks this is more of a theoretical possibility.
“We all hope for herd immunity through the vaccination,” she says.
Measures such as the mask requirement will probably remain with us for a while in 2021.
List of rubric lists: © Karl-Josef Hildenbrand / dpa
