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Biontech vaccine box
Photo: Matthias Bein / DPA central image
Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) has announced that he will order further adapted corona vaccines for 830 million euros.
This announcement was met with anger in the Union.
Especially since the largest opposition faction in the Bundestag has just received an answer to a small request to the federal government about the vaccine stocks.
The document is available to SPIEGEL.
In its response, the government states that, as of March 31, there are over 70 million vaccine doses in federal stockpiles:
22.7 million doses of Biontech for people aged 12 and over, and 7.5 million doses for children.
43.7 million doses of Moderna's vaccine,
2.3 million doses of Johnson & Johnson,
0.7 million doses of Novavax.
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In the second quarter of 2022, the expiry date of a total of around 9.2 million vaccine doses in the warehouses will expire.
However, the federal government does not have any information on the expiry dates of vaccines in medical wholesale.
The Union therefore accuses Lauterbach of not having an overview of expired vaccine doses.
»Wholesale is central to the distribution of vaccines.
A blind spot there of all places is fatal, because a targeted ordering policy cannot do without data on vaccines that are about to expire.
Continuing to shop without having an overview of expiring cans would be completely the wrong approach," says the spokesman for health policy for the Union faction, Tino Sorge, to SPIEGEL.
International Vaccine Alliance hardly accepts donations
Donating vaccines to other countries is apparently not an option either.
Due to reduced demand, the international alliance COVAX only accepts donations if other countries have already confirmed acceptance.
Direct donations from Germany to individual states also included a maximum of eight million cans.
"Germany will largely be stuck with its vaccine surpluses," Worry fears.
"The minister misjudged his shopping spree."
According to the Union faction, the Ministry of Health's vaccine campaign mainly cost money - and brought little.
Almost a million vaccinations have been carried out since the beginning of the »Vaccination helps« information campaign at the end of last year.
According to the government, the campaign has cost 31 million euros so far - two thirds of the estimated 48 million euros.
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