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On June 10, the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) made a recommendation: Children between 12 and 17 years should only be vaccinated if they have a previous illness.
All others are free to have a vaccination after consulting their doctor.
The commission justified its risk-benefit assessment with a lack of data on the long-term effects of the vaccine.
Another factor was the lack of vaccines.
Shortly afterwards, politicians from all parties criticized this decision. The more the vaccination campaign stalled in Germany, the more urgent the calls to the Stiko to change their decision. Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder recently said in an interview with Bayerischer Rundfunk that a general corona vaccination recommendation for children and adolescents from the age of twelve should go faster. He spoke of Stiko as a voluntary organization, whereas the European Medicines Agency (EMA) are the "professionals". After all, it had already approved the Covid-19 vaccine from Biontech / Pfizer for children and adolescents from the age of twelve in May.
The health ministers of the federal states had decided to launch a separate vaccination campaign for children in May, but unfortunately the vaccine was still missing.
Because it is now there, everyone agreed on Monday: In the vaccination centers of the federal states, children over 12 should now be given targeted offers.
In many places this has already happened anyway.
Booster vaccinations for the elderly and people vaccinated with AstraZeneca were also decided.
According to the participants, there was no big dispute on the topics, the decisions were made unanimously.
"The vaccination of children is effective in the media, but is by no means as relevant from an epidemiological point of view."
Stiko boss Thomas Mertens
Before the decision was made, the Stiko had reaffirmed its view on the subject.
You might decide differently at another point in time, said Stiko boss Thomas Mertens to SPIEGEL.
Then when there is more data.
However, his organization does not allow itself to be driven by politics.
Because people did not go to vaccinate, a representative discussion was now being held about vaccinating children, Mertens added: "As if that were the only way to increase the vaccination rate."
So are politics and science going separate ways?
In any case, one does not really want to understand the hustle and bustle among the state health ministers. Bavaria's Minister of Health Klaus Holetschek (CSU) admits that there are of course different perspectives on the subject. »The Stiko examines the question of the individual assessment of the benefit of such a vaccination according to independent scientific criteria. In politics, we have all the pandemic events on our radar and we have to weigh up several parameters, such as school closings and long covid, "explains the chairman of the conference of health ministers. This gives rise to different opinions, which, however, do not have to be contradicted.
School closings and changing classes, as several politicians from all parties had recently repeatedly emphasized, should be avoided at all costs in the autumn.
Despite the increasing number of infections.
Holetschek also sees no dismantling of the Stiko in the decision of the health ministers.
"This decision is not directed against Stiko," says Holetschek.
She takes up the leeway that the scientists give in their recommendation.
"We're not taking any action," he said.
But it is important that the vaccinations now proceed quickly.
Only 20.5 percent of 12 to 17 year olds are vaccinated once, 9.9 percent of them completely.
"Actually, we are doing nothing else than what we had already decided in May: At that time, too, we health ministers wanted to vaccinate children from 12, but there was still too little vaccine," says Holetschek.
In neighboring Baden-Württemberg, Health Minister Manfred Lucha (Greens) also sees no problem between politics and Stiko.
"The data from other countries mean that nothing should stand in the way of vaccinating children with the approved vaccines in Germany either." The American health authority CDC has already recommended vaccinations for children and adolescents over the age of 12.
FDP top candidate Christian Lindner also welcomes the vaccination offers that have now been decided in Germany. "A low-threshold offer for children and adolescents is right, because it is about approved vaccines," Lindner told SPIEGEL. “The families have to decide freely without any pressure whether they accept the offer. Self-determination is particularly important because there is no recommendation from Stiko, ”he explained.
The problem: In some places, this self-determination can apparently overwhelm - and not just parents.
A woman from Baden-Württemberg told SPIEGEL that she recently wanted to have her 14-year-old daughter vaccinated in Esslingen.
But when they got to the vaccination center, the doctor kept asking in the informative conversation whether she was even aware of the risk.
14-year-olds do not need a vaccination and the risk of facial paralysis should not be underestimated.
After all, the Stiko is also against it.
The 14-year-old was so shaken that she cried and no longer wanted a vaccination, reports her mother in a letter to SPIEGEL.
Is that an isolated case?
Is that the rule?
Health Minister Holetschek does not actually believe that the recommendation by Stiko has unsettled parents. If you are unsure, you should talk to your doctor.
