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Vaccination against the coronavirus: More and more people are in favor of lifting the prioritization

2021-04-26T20:29:55.088Z


Does it still make sense? Isn't it? Germany disputes the sequence of vaccinations. Doctors in private practice have a clear opinion - in some places the prioritization has already been unofficially weakened.


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People wait in front of a vaccination center in Cologne

Photo: Marius Becker / dpa

The German population has been able to be vaccinated against the corona virus for almost four months - many people can hardly wait for their turn.

Because there is a certain order in which age and previous illnesses play a role, but in which certain professions also have priority.

Only those who are authorized to vaccinate according to this defined prioritization get an appointment at the vaccination center or with the family doctor.

Opinions differ as to whether this principle is still useful.

Read here who will quickly abolish the vaccination sequence in Germany - and who would like to keep it until June:

The Association of Resident Doctors in Germany (Virchowbund) is calling for a quicker departure from the previous vaccination sequence than the federal government has planned so far.

"The prioritization should be lifted in two or three weeks at the latest," said association chief Dirk Heinrich of the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung" (NOZ).

He expects "a clear signal" from the federal and state vaccination summit on Monday.

The minister-presidents of the federal states then consult with representatives of the federal government about the corona vaccination.

The question of what rights people with full vaccination protection receive will also be discussed.

Spahn's proposed June release?

"Much too late"

"When group two, the 70 to 80-year-olds and seriously ill people, have been largely vaccinated, approval is required," said Heinrich.

"We'll be that far in mid-May." The approval proposed by Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) in June would come "much too late." From May onwards, 1.5 million vaccine doses per week for resident doctors, from June onwards it up to 3.5 million doses.

more on the subject

  • Survey on Covid-19 in Germany: So high is the willingness to be vaccinatedBy Katherine Rydlink

  • Vaccination speed: Braun expects waiting times even without prioritization

  • General practitioners on Corona: Who is vaccinating whom? By Holger Dambeck and Maik Mosheim

“The practices have to offer additional consultation hours just for the vaccination.

If you then have to look for the right people, that would simply no longer be possible, ”he said.

"If the prioritization does not disappear as quickly as possible, we will bureaucratize a vaccination jam."

According to a survey by the Kantar opinion research institute for "Bild am Sonntag", a clear majority of 75 percent of people in Germany are in favor of an immediate revocation of the vaccination sequence.

22 percent of those questioned were against it, the other three percent did not answer.

Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) also advocates ending the vaccination sequence quickly.

"We have to resolve the rigid prioritization faster," said Söder of "Bild am Sonntag".

"After the vaccination dates that have already been agreed, all vaccines should be fully approved for everyone." This should "ideally be done in May".

Söder warned: "The vaccination bureaucracy is delaying the success of the vaccination."

Students and teachers still without vaccination protection

The Bavarian Prime Minister also spoke out in favor of vaccinating more students from the age of 16 "if the vaccine is sufficient".

"This is where the incidence is highest," emphasized Söder.

From his point of view, this age group should therefore be "treated like adults when vaccinated."

more on the subject

  • Exploding Incidences in Children: Beyond the 500, An Analysis by Julia Merlot

  • Children with Pims Syndrome: The Pitfalls of Asymptomatic Coronaviruses

Because the risk of infection in younger age groups has now turned out to be very high, and therefore more and more schoolchildren are affected, the education union GEW has advocated early vaccination for all teachers. "Whoever opens, must vaccinate," said the chairman of the Education and Science Union (GEW), Marlis Tepe, to the newspapers of the Funke media group with a view to the incidence value of 165 specified in the federal emergency brake. If schools had to stay open up to this value, it was necessary to bring all teachers into the vaccination prioritization group two, demanded Tepe. "This is the only way to ensure the health protection of teachers, students and their parents."

So far, only teachers at elementary and special schools have been classified in vaccination priority group two, said Tepe.

All other teachers in general and vocational schools are in group three.

Health expert and SPD politician Karl Lauterbach also affirmed that young people are particularly at risk in the third wave of corona - and that has something to do with the fact that they are very low in the vaccination sequence.

“As more elderly people are vaccinated, the incidence among parents and children increases steadily.

You are at the highest risk, ”he wrote on Twitter a few days ago.

However, there is currently a problem: the vaccine is not yet available in sufficient quantities to make an offer to all citizens immediately. As long as the vaccine is a scarce commodity, prioritization must be adhered to in order to protect the weakest, said Thomas Mertens, chairman of the Standing Vaccination Commission, on Deutschlandfunk. Only at the beginning of June will there probably be enough vaccine available to be able to lift the prioritization.

Regardless of this, the medical ethicist Christiane Woopen calls for socially disadvantaged people to be vaccinated faster than planned. She warns of growing social inequality as a result of the corona pandemic. "I would send vaccination vehicles to socially difficult neighborhoods," said the chairman of the European Ethics Council of the "Rheinische Post" on Friday. The vaccinations have to reach families and workplaces where there are problems with keeping a distance and "people with poor access to the health system".

Woopen therefore spoke out in favor of changing the sequence of vaccinations.

"There are the hot spots where people live cramped," she said.

But there are also teachers and people with serious previous illnesses who are longingly waiting for a vaccination.

"That is why we have to combine prioritization with pragmatism," emphasized the scientist, who was chairwoman of the German Ethics Council until 2016.

A few days ago, Alena Buyx, who currently holds this position, was also open to letting the prioritization expire and expanding access to vaccination.

If people in the prioritized groups have already received a vaccination offer, approval is "even necessary from an ethical perspective".

It must be avoided to dispose of the vaccine because he has not found enough buyers.

Where vaccine is already approved for all age groups

In Saxony, Bavaria, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin, the AstraZeneca vaccine has been released outside of the prioritized group since this week.

In the aforementioned federal states, people under the age of 60 can now also have this administered in specialist or general practitioner practices.

more on the subject

Coronavirus: What a loosening of the vaccination sequence speaks by Julia Merlot and Katherine Rydlink

Chancellery Minister Helge Braun welcomes this step. "If by dropping the prioritization, AstraZeneca is now infected more quickly in the family doctor's practices, then that is very, very good," said the CDU politician of the "Augsburger Allgemeine". It is a "good and safe vaccine." You have to talk to someone who wants to be vaccinated about whether they have a particular tendency to thrombosis, said Braun. “In such a case, it would not be recommended, but otherwise the doctor can decide. I welcome that. "

It seems as if the vaccination prioritization has been softened in one place or another anyway, without any official departure from it.

In North Rhine-Westphalia, for example, they are currently sticking to the rating and there is also no AstraZeneca approval for all age groups.

People under the age of 60 are not recommended there to be immunized with this vaccine.

But on Twitter, "WDR aktuell" quotes Health Minister Karl-Josef Laumann as saying: "If a patient says I'll do it and the doctor says it's acceptable, then it's not forbidden."

more on the subject

Vaccination justice: Please do not push ahead! A comment by Philipp Löwe

In addition, there are apparently now many people who do not adhere so strictly to the current vaccination sequence.

For example, they have their family doctors put themselves on waiting lists and hope to be called if a dose of vaccine has not been used in the evening.

As of Saturday morning, around 7 percent of the population in Germany are fully vaccinated.

That was around 5.86 million people.

Almost 19 million people or 22.8 percent of the population have received a first vaccination, announced the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).

Almost 2.9 million people have recovered from Covid 19 disease, according to the RKI.

more on the subject

Dealing with encroachments on fundamental rights: Ethics Council chairman Buyx calls for relaxation for vaccinated people

For those who have been vaccinated and recovered, the chances are not bad that relaxed corona measures will soon apply to them.

At the vaccination summit on Monday, the federal government also wants to discuss exceptions to protective measures.

Federal Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) told the »Handelsblatt« that if it is certain that a vaccination not only protects against illness but can also prevent further transmission, this must be taken into account in the measures - that is »not a privilege for vaccinated people, but a requirement of the constitution ”.

The run on vaccination appointments could then be all the greater.

With material from AFP and dpa

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-04-26

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