After the vaccination is before the vaccination - Lindner is already setting high goals for future boosters
Created: 12/24/2021, 8:09 AM
From: Marc Beyer
There is a lot of activity in Germany's vaccination centers.
Recently, Health Minister Lauterbach even lent a hand.
© Moritz Frankenberg / dpa
The hopes in the corona policy are still resting on the booster campaign.
The Federal Minister of Health already expects a fourth vaccination to be necessary in view of Omikron.
Munich - An official title is not awarded in this discipline, so Christian Lindner does not use the word European champion. But the FDP boss cannot hide a certain satisfaction when it comes to how many people in Germany have already received their third corona vaccination. "The most successful booster campaign in Europe" put down the much scolded German politics, he told the
Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung
. The goal of 30 million injections by the end of December has almost been achieved, with the next 30 to follow in January.
That is demanding, but not utopian.
Whether that will do it, however, is a completely different question.
Those responsible are already looking to the future.
On Wednesday evening, Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) spoke openly for the first time about a fourth vaccination that people would have to adjust to.
It is to be feared that the previous booster protection will not be "too permanent" in view of the Omikron variant.
Corona vaccination: Manufacturers have long been working on adapted vaccines
The federal government has already ordered 80 million vaccine doses, which are currently being adapted to the variant, from Biontech. They want to proceed in a similar way at Moderna, says Lauterbach. He expects the serum from April or May at the latest. For many millions of people who were boosted in autumn, the fourth injection is then logically. It will be similar with those who have just received a refresher. Experience has shown that the effectiveness decreases significantly after a few months.
The manufacturers were aware of the need to adapt the vaccine to variants from the start. Above all, the producers of the mRNA vaccines, Biontech and Moderna, advertise that this technology can be optimized in an uncomplicated manner. Biontech founder Ugur Sahin refers to studies that show "that variant vaccines are just as well tolerated and show symptoms similar to those of the original vaccine against the wild type". In the contracts with the EU, the company undertakes to adapt the vaccine within 100 days if necessary.
It looks similar with Moderna.
Gerald Wiegand, the head of the US group in Germany, speaks of "multivalent candidates who have already been optimized for earlier variants such as Beta or Delta and who are already in clinical testing".
Both groups, however, point to a still manageable data situation on Omikron, which makes forecasts difficult.
Wiegand adds that even a booster vaccination with the current Moderna preparation could increase the antibody level against Omikron by up to 83 times: "That is a sharp sword."
Corona vaccination: Accelerated approval for manufacturers' adapted vaccines
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) would accelerate the treatment of an adapted vaccine from a manufacturer that already has an approval.
A clinical series of tests on the effectiveness with a small number of test subjects is sufficient, it is said.
This also applies to all future preparations, because it is currently not even certain whether a fourth vaccination would remain.
In the case of many infectious diseases, boosters are “a common approach,” says Moderna's Germany boss Wiegand.
This could result in completely different challenges for health policy.
FDP boss Lindner suggests that in the medium term one should be able to “boost the entire population within a month if necessary”.
That would actually be a masterpiece.
A few weeks ago, ethicist Sigrid Graumann spoke to us about the tense situation in the intensive care units and the escape from nursing professions.
She does not want to stigmatize unvaccinated people.