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Jens Spahn: "Many of you are understandably angry"
Photo: Hans Christian Plambeck / laif
The managing health minister Jens Spahn (CDU) apologized in a letter to the medical profession for his communication about the allocation of Biontech cans. "I expressly regret this too short-term communication, the additional work and your understandable annoyance," wrote Spahn in a letter that was sent to the contracted doctors on Monday evening according to the daily newspaper "Die Welt". "I would like to apologize to you and your teams for this."
It goes on to say: "Many of you are understandably annoyed by our too short notice that we will not be able to fully serve your planned Biontech orders from next week and that the vaccine from Moderna will also have to be used," said Spahn.
"The personal messages that reach me show me how great the frustration and displeasure is."
"Orders almost quadrupled"
The background is that the central Biontech warehouse is empty faster than expected.
"Within two weeks, the weekly orders for Biontech vaccines have almost quadrupled," said the minister.
»In terms of communication, the impression has now arisen that we are only relying more heavily on the Moderna vaccine because we want to avoid a possible expiry of these vaccines in the first quarter of 2022.
That is an important aspect, but not the decisive one. "
The decisive factor is that from next week onwards, temporarily no more than two to three million doses of the Biontech vaccine will be available per week.
"Of course we are not holding back doses of this vaccine unnecessarily on the part of the federal government," Spahn explained.
In view of the increasing number of corona infections, all vaccinated adults in Germany should receive a booster vaccination if possible.
Spahn's Ministry of Health announced in a letter to the federal states on Friday that it would limit the quantities ordered for the Biontech vaccine for the next few weeks.
For the time being, practices should be able to order a maximum of 30 doses of Biontech per week, vaccination centers and mobile vaccination teams 1020 doses.
There should be no upper limits for orders from Moderna.
By the end of the year there should be a total of around 24 million doses from Biontech and 26 million from Moderna - enough vaccine for everyone, according to Spahn.
Moderna the "Rolls-Royce" of vaccines
Spahn has been trying to correct the apparent communication glitch for days.
For the first time he regretted the short-term changeover on Saturday: "I know that this short-term changeover means a lot of additional stress for many committed helpers on site in the doctor's practices and vaccination centers." Since then, the minister has repeatedly pointed out that the primary reason for limiting the shortage of the Biontech vaccine.
On Monday, Spahn explicitly praised the Moderna vaccine: According to some doctors, Biontech is the Mercedes, Moderna is the Rolls-Royce of the vaccines.
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The criticism of Spahn is still great.
Many doctors are angry because they have already made many appointments for a booster vaccination and now have to sell their patients another vaccine - even if, according to studies, Moderna protects against an infection with Covid-19 for a little longer.
Spahn's colleagues in the federal states are also not happy with the minister's crisis management.
At the Conference of Health Ministers (GMK) they asked him to end the quota as soon as possible and, if possible, to procure additional Biontech vaccine.
According to SPIEGEL information, the mood at the meeting was tense.
According to the participants, the Bavarian Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU) is said to have said to Spahn: "I don't feel like the dung any more: Now it's a shift in the shaft!"
Nevertheless, Spahn was able to record at least one success on Monday.
The Mainz-based company Biontech wants to deliver three million cans instead of two in the coming week.
This was announced by Spahn in the conference of health ministers.
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