In the ARD, the SPD health expert also explains why Germany and Great Britain are difficult to compare with regard to the delta mutation.
Berlin - The Curevac failure does not bring down the German vaccination campaign, believes Karl Lauterbach.
But for poorer countries it is a "tragedy".
That said the SPD health expert in an interview with the ARD.
"This vaccine had the noble aim of being an inexpensive, very effective vaccine that could be used anywhere without great cooling conditions," he explained to journalist Carmen Miosga in Thursday's "Tagesthemen".
The serum would therefore have been predestined for poorer countries.
“It is indeed a tragedy,” said Lauterbach, assessing the negative news regarding the Curevac vaccine.
Delta mutation in Germany and Great Britain - Lauterbach draws a comparison
But what is going on in Great Britain, where many people already have a corona vaccination, but recently more than 10,000 new infections were reported in one day, Miosga asked.
The problem almost exclusively affects people who have not been vaccinated or who have only been vaccinated once, Lauterbach replied.
With regard to Germany, he said: “The vaccinated will have no problems with the Delta variant.
It does not go against the vaccines that we have used here. "
"If the Delta variant came to Germany more quickly, we would have a huge problem," he continued.
“Because we have less vaccination progress than the British.
Delta comes to us at a time when a large proportion of people have already been vaccinated twice. ”The mutation of the pathogen called Delta is considered to be particularly contagious.
It currently accounts for an estimated six percent of the samples in Germany.
Lauterbach on the German vaccination campaign: "Will achieve herd immunity"
The government's promise to vaccinate all adults by the end of the summer will not be jeopardized.
"We will achieve herd immunity in mid-September," said the SPD politician, referring to the stable deliveries from other manufacturers and the low R values for the virus in the summer.
By the end of September at the latest, all adults who want this should be fully vaccinated.
That is an estimated 80 percent.
The children were missing, however.
According to an interim analysis, the corona vaccine from Curevac had only achieved a preliminary effectiveness of 47 percent against corona disease "of any severity" and thus did not meet the specified statistical success criteria, as the company announced.
(frs with material from dpa)
