Corona vaccine: Lauterbach names deficiency details - PK with RKI boss Wieler

Created: 12/16/2021, 8:36 AM

By: Kim Hornickel

Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) is available to answer questions in the capital's press on vaccine supply and other corona issues.

© Photothek / Imago Images

Health Minister Karl Lauterbach answers questions from the press today (December 16, 2021).

He criticizes the supply of corona vaccine - and is criticized himself.

Berlin - Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach * (SPD *) urgently warned this week that not enough corona vaccine * was available. According to a report by the Ministry of Health, there are currently 30 million doses of vaccine * missing for booster vaccinations. The replenishment of the first and second vaccinations is also stalling. How could this happen? How should the vaccine supply be ensured in the future?

Health Minister Karl Lauterbach will answer the pressing questions on Thursday (December 16, 2021) at 3 p.m. at a press conference.

At Lauterbach's first appearance in the new office, further questions about the coronavirus * and the upcoming children's vaccination campaign * should be answered.

Just like his predecessor Jens Spahn (CDU), Lauterbach will appear in front of the press together with the President of the Robert Koch Institute, Lothar Wieler.

Karl Lauterbach: Corona vaccine from Biontech tightly measured

Lauterbach said on Tuesday (December 14th, 2021) that according to the previous stocks and orders at the beginning of next year, there was too little vaccine available.

On Wednesday (December 15, 2021), his ministry announced the order of an additional 92 million cans for 2022.

The budget committee in the Bundestag released 2.2 billion euros for this.

The vaccine replenishment will come from Eastern Europe, said the health minister.

He is buying back non-inoculable serum from these countries.

In the vaccination campaign against the corona virus, the Biontech * vaccine is currently tight, said Lauterbach.

Within the next three weeks, millions of doses of Biontech could be delivered in Germany, but that would be much less than what doctors asked every week, according to Lauterbach on Wednesday evening (December 15, 2021) on ZDF *.

“We pour everything out here,” said Lauterbach in the ZDF program “Markus Lanz - The Year 2021” *.

All vaccine reserves would be made available.

"Because the campaign has to run as well as it can."

Corona vaccine: missed your order?

Lauterbach criticizes the lack and is attacked

According to a report in the Bild newspaper on Thursday, the shortage of the corona vaccine is due to missed orders.

Germany and the EU allowed an order option for several million cans of Biontech to elapse in early autumn.

The possible delivery date would have been January 2022, according to the sheet.

Neither the then Health Minister Jens Spahn * (CDU *) nor EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had pushed for an additional vaccine.

Voices were recently heard from the CDU criticizing Lauterbach. He conjures up "fire" in order to then play the fire department, so the allegation. The SPD politician emphasized that the communication about vaccine shortages was not a reproach against his predecessor Jens Spahn. There was also enough vaccine available throughout the year - but not for a very quick booster campaign.

The chairman of the German Association of General Practitioners, Ulrich Weigeldt, also criticized Lauterbach's public relations work.

"Some are afraid that they can no longer be boosted," said Weigeldt of the Funke media group.

"The others refrain from the vaccination because they have the feeling that trying to get it is useless." The social association VdK also demanded that risk groups should be given priority in the booster vaccination if there is a foreseeable shortage of vaccines.

(kh with dpa / AFP)