Waiting for Novavax: How the new vaccine works and who will get it first

Created: 02/16/2022, 09:37 am

By: Katrin Woitsch

The new protein-based vaccine Novavax is scheduled for delivery at the end of February.

© Bernd Feil/MiS

The first protein-based corona vaccine is to be delivered to Bavaria at the end of February.

Some unvaccinated are waiting for Novavax.

But first the new vaccine goes to the clinics and nursing homes.

But the demand there is not yet great.

In Erlangen they already have a kind of waiting list.

Several hundred people have already registered for the Corona * vaccine Novavax by phone.

It wasn't planned that way, a spokesman for the city said.

However, the demand is about as great as the city had expected.

In many clinics and care facilities, however, it is not.

"We have queried the district-wide in the medical facilities, so far the need has been limited," reports the spokesman.

However, he assumes that demand will also increase there when the new vaccine is really available.

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Novavax vaccine: Start in Bavaria in February

According to the current status, this should be the case in the last week of February at the earliest, as announced by the Bavarian Ministry of Health.

The federal government receives up to 34 million doses of Novaxovid from Novavax for the whole year, explains a spokeswoman.

Around four million cans will be delivered to Germany in the first quarter, with the first tranche of 1.4 million cans expected in the last week of February.

The distribution modalities to the individual federal states have not yet been determined, she emphasizes.

The vaccine* is approved for people aged 18 and over.

However, employees in clinics and care facilities are given priority first.

Demand in this group has so far been manageable, and not only in Erlangen.

Most Bavarian vaccination centers have started a query in the facilities, reports BRK spokesman Sohrab Taheri-Sohi.

"The demand is currently more than manageable." He also explains this by the fact that the vaccination rates in the clinics are already high.

The new vaccine was also not intensively advertised.

We will do everything to ensure that no vaccine is thrown away.

CRPD spokesman Sohrab Taheri-Sohi

Corona: Novavax inactivated vaccine is protein vaccine

However, some unvaccinated people are already waiting for it.

Because Novaxovid is a so-called inactivated vaccine.

It is not gene-based like the mRNA vaccines Biontech* and Moderna or the vector vaccines Astrazeneca and Johnson & Johnson - but a protein vaccine.

All approved vaccines use the spike protein, a protein molecule that sits on the surface of the coronavirus and enables it to dock with human cells.

The mRNA and vector vaccines deliver the genetic information containing the blueprint of the spike protein into the body.

A vaccination stimulates the body cells to produce this spike protein for a short time.

The immune system remembers it and is prepared to defend itself if it is later confronted with the real coronavirus.

Protein vaccines, on the other hand, contain tiny nanoparticles of the pathogen against which the vaccination is intended to protect.

In the case of Novavax, this is also the spike protein.

It is produced in insect cell cultures and combined with artificial nanoparticles.

So the body is inoculated with copies of the spike protein instead of replicating it itself.

Two doses spaced at least three weeks apart are required for primary immunization.

It is still unclear how long the Novavax protection lasts and how well it works against the Omicron variant.

Novavax start in Bavaria - "We will do everything so that no vaccine is thrown away"

As soon as Novavax doses arrive in Bavaria, they will be vaccinated to the prioritized people.

If the need for this group is lower than the vaccine is available, other citizens could also benefit from it, says BRK spokesman Taheri-Sohi.

"We will do everything we can to ensure that no vaccine is thrown away." Novavax special vaccination campaigns would be conceivable.

Registration for Novavax via the vaccination portal is not yet possible in Bavaria.

The left had already criticized this (we reported).

The omicron wave seems to be breaking – and the corona rules are falling.* Bavaria's Council of Ministers has just decided on far-reaching easing.

It meets culture and sport.