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Vaccination in Germany's largest vaccination center in Hamburg: it's still the turn of the elderly
Photo: Joerg Boethling / imago images / Joerg Boethling
Solidarity apparently has an expiration date if it is not rewarded. For a year younger people stuck to the rules for the older ones. They kept their distance and wore masks, stayed home and looked after their children. But that's enough for them now. You finally want to sit in a bar again or get on a plane. The patience is obviously at the end. It feels like the younger ones don't want to wait any longer.
When the Standing Vaccination Commission after AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, recommended the second vector vaccine only for older people, a young man commented on Twitter: “Then #BioNtech should only be reserved for people UNDER 60 years of age.
Otherwise we will never get hold of it «.
Another wrote that people in their early twenties are "fed up".
In a comment my SPIEGEL colleague Claus Hecking accused older people of "hoarding" the Biontech vaccine.
We now absolutely needed a generation conflict, argued my colleague Markus Becker in a similar way.
The boys would have to rebel.
Both called for the older ones to be given only AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.
"So that grandma and grandpa don't get sick"
This is a significantly different tone than that which dominated the discourse in the early days of the pandemic. In March 2020, the Federal Ministry of Health appealed to the solidarity of Germans with a commercial. People explained why they stayed at home during the pandemic: "So that we can survive this time with as few victims as possible," said a woman into the camera. "Because life can save," said two children. "So that grandma and grandpa don't get sick." Protecting yourself, others and, above all, the elderly, it seemed in the first few months of the pandemic, gave people strength. Today there seems to be little left of it.
In their comments, the two SPIEGEL colleagues from medical practices wrote that they are overwhelmed by advising older people who would rather be vaccinated with the preparation from Biontech / Pfizer than with that from AstraZeneca.
But their subjective impression is difficult to substantiate: In some countries AstraZeneca is left behind, in others the preparation is inoculated without any problems.
Some doctor's offices still don't get enough vaccines.
The consulting effort in the practices is certainly enormous, but conversations with patients are also the task of doctors.
Accusing the elderly of "hamstering" implies that they have malicious intentions if they prefer to be treated with a vaccine that is considered a German success story - and has been repeatedly advertised as such.
Communication with the vector vaccines, on the other hand, was not that cheap.
First there was the debacle over the recommendations of the Standing Vaccination Commission at AstraZeneca: First it should only go to older people, then only to younger people.
To this day, the vaccine has not gotten rid of its bad reputation: It is considered a second-class vaccine, which, in the opinion of the two SPIEGEL colleagues, should be prescribed because nobody else takes it.
What applies to older people also applies to younger people in the vast majority of cases
Alone: Who can blame people for being afraid of something?
Who can blame them for wanting what they consider to be the "best" for themselves?
Instead of insulting the elderly and forcing them, we should rather ask and convince them.
We should educate them further if they have any questions.
We should explain to them that if they are vaccinated with a vector vaccine, they can increase the rate of vaccination.
That it means solidarity with the younger generation to choose this vaccine.
But what applies to them also applies to younger people in the vast majority of cases.
They don't have to be afraid of the vaccine either: the risk of getting seriously ill with Covid-19 is significantly higher, even for younger people, if they are not vaccinated than having a rare blood clot after being vaccinated with AstraZeneca.
Numerous young people can be seen on social media who understand this and show their arms vaccinated with AstraZeneca.
Health Minister Jens Spahn did it too.
Most Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses will be given to younger people
In the end, the largest number of vector vaccines will go to the boys anyway: At Johnson & Johnson, vaccine deliveries of ten million doses will not come until between June and July.
By then, the elderly should already be immunized.
According to the Federal Minister of Health, there are only five to six million people willing to be vaccinated who are older than 60 and have not yet been vaccinated.
So it's only about a smaller part of vaccines.
“Fighting a pandemic is no longer about us.
It's about when everyone can go on vacation. "
What the debate shows is something else: fighting pandemics is no longer about us. It's about when everyone can go on vacation. Since the federal states have changed or canceled the prioritization in very different ways, everyone has been fighting for a vaccination appointment for themselves. Soon, when the prioritization falls across Germany, as decided by the health ministers, it will be the same everywhere. In many places, it would not actually be the turn of the younger generation. This has nothing to do with injustice, but with the fact that people have different risks for serious illnesses.
Instead of conjuring up the next generation conflict, perhaps we should consider how we can become more generous with one another again. This is the only way we can possibly hold out the last few meters of this pandemic together. It's going to be hard enough.