Side effects may well occur after a corona vaccination, but two clinics have now stopped vaccination with the active ingredient from Astrazeneca.
Too many employees called in sick.
Update from February 17, 3:20 p.m.:
More and more people in Germany and around the world are vaccinating against the coronavirus, but above all the active ingredient from Astrazeneca is now making headlines again.
After a conspicuously large number of employees reported sick after being vaccinated with the vaccine, two clinics in Germany stopped the inoculation of the active ingredient (see original notification below).
After Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn had confirmed at a press conference in the morning that the incident was now being investigated by the Paul Ehrlich Institute, concerns are now increasing about the administration of the Astrazeneca vaccine.
As reported by n-tv, among others, some persons eligible for vaccination are said to have already let their appointment expire before worrying about the Astrazeneca vaccine.
"Yes, appointments were canceled with us, people didn't come," a spokeswoman for the Paderborn district told the TV broadcaster.
According to the NRW Ministry of Health, there is still no nationwide overview of the number of canceled appointments.
As n-tv further reports, after the accumulated sickness reports in clinics, only 8806 doses of the 72,000 Astrazeneca vaccine doses delivered to Lower Saxony are said to have been vaccinated up to and including Tuesday.
The Ministry of Health in Hanover confirmed this to the TV broadcaster.
Too many employees ill with side effects: German clinics stop Astrazeneca vaccination
Original notification from February 17, 2020:
Braunschweig - After the first regions in Sweden had already suspended a vaccination with the Astrazeneca vaccine, the first clinics in Lower Saxony have now also stopped vaccinations with the vaccine.
After complaints from a number of clinic employees about side effects, the administration of the active ingredient was stopped at two locations, as reported by owl24.de *.
Corona in Germany: Too many employees report sick after the Astrazeneca vaccination
The Duchess Elisabeth Hospital in Braunschweig announced on Tuesday that it would postpone planned vaccinations with this preparation.
At the Emden Clinic, vaccinations with the Astrazeneca vaccine also stopped.
On Tuesday evening, however, the district of Leer gave the green light for the administration of the active ingredient.
The reason for this: after 88 employees of the Braunschweig Clinic had been vaccinated by Astrazeneca, 37 of them reported temporarily sick because of "vaccination reactions".
The vaccination took place on Thursday.
For this reason, the clinic stopped any further vaccination with the Astrazeneca active ingredient in order not to endanger operations.
Employees at the Emden Clinic also reported sick after vaccinations.
As a result, the district of Leer also initially announced that it would no longer inject the agent.
"Because our vaccination doses probably come from the same batch as in Emden," it said.
Corona in Germany: side effects can occur - but batch problem cause complications?
According to the Robert Koch Institute *, side effects and reactions can occur both with the mRNA vaccines from Biontech / Pfizer and Moderna and with the vector-based Astrazeneca preparation.
The head of the crisis team in Lower Saxony, Heiger Scholz, was surprised on Tuesday at the increased occurrence of
side effects.
A batch problem cannot be ruled out.
So far, the side effects have not been severe and nobody has had to go to a clinic with complications, said Scholz.
Ultimately, the expected side effects are a positive sign - you can see that the vaccine is working.
South Africa had already reported problems with the Astrazeneca vaccine.
According to a media report, the country plans to return a million doses of the vaccine.
A study has shown that the vaccine has only limited effects against the virus mutation discovered in South Africa.
Corona in Germany: Paul Ehrlich Institute informed - the incident is now being investigated
The Paul Ehrlich Institute responsible for the safety of vaccines has been informed.
An assessment of the specific cases is currently not possible, said a spokeswoman for the institute of the "Braunschweiger Zeitung".
It is currently being investigated whether the reactions went beyond what was observed in the clinical trials.
The manufacturer sees no cause for concern.
"Currently the reported reactions are as we would expect them based on the findings from our clinical study program," Astrazeneca announced on Monday on request.
Meanwhile, the number of new infections continues to fall, but over 200 employees at an ice cream factory in Osnabrück have now become infected with the corona virus *.
* Merkur.de and owl24.de are part of the Ippen-Digital editorial network.
List of rubric lists: © Kay Nietfeld / dpa
