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Spahn-Plan: Why the vaccine has not yet been delivered to general practitioners

2021-03-12T17:46:25.298Z


Vaccinating more unbureaucratically, also in doctor's offices: In view of supposedly uselessly stored vaccination doses, many are demanding more speed with immunization. Health Minister Spahn has now made improvements - but is that enough?


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Vaccination on Hiddensee Island: The AstraZeneca vaccine no longer has an age limit

Photo: Jens Büttner / dpa

"In Germany we always want to do everything particularly neatly and thoroughly," says Ute Teichert, annoyed.

Teichert is chairman of the Federal Association of Doctors of the Public Health Service and criticizes: "Thoroughness and perfectionism stand in the way of vaccinations at the moment." Prioritizing, inviting, registering and documenting would take up too much time and energy.

The doctor therefore calls for unbureaucratic solutions and thus hits a sore point.

In an international comparison, Germany only ranks in the middle when it comes to vaccinating against Covid-19.

In Great Britain, on the other hand, a large part of the population has already been vaccinated, and all corona restrictions are to be lifted there in June.

US President Joe Biden recently brought forward his vaccination promise by a whopping two months.

By the end of May, all adults in the USA should have the chance to be vaccinated against Covid-19.

Just in time for July 4th, US Independence Day, small-group celebrations would be possible again.

And Germany?

In this country, only 3.3 percent of the population have received the intended two doses of vaccine so far.

If the pace continues like this, the target set by the federal government of offering all adults in Germany a vaccination in the summer can hardly be met.

So it has to go faster, just how?

Health Minister Jens Spahn presented his new vaccination plans on Thursday.

That is new:

  • The AstraZeneca vaccine

    no longer has an age limit

    .

  • The

    specified period between the first and second vaccination should be exhausted

    .

    For the vaccines from Biontech and Moderna, this means that up to six weeks can pass between the first and second syringes, and twelve weeks for AstraZeneca.

    In the case of the vaccine from Johnson & Johnson, which has been approved in the EU since Thursday, this rule is no longer applicable because only one dose is provided for it anyway.

    It has not yet been determined when the vaccine will be available in Germany.

  • The

    vaccination sequence can be deviated from

    in

    hotspot regions

    .

    In Vogtland, all adults should now be able to be vaccinated against Covid-19.

    Other regions could follow (read more here.)

Critics don't go far enough.

They demand that medical practices be included in the vaccination program as soon as possible.

Some even call for the vaccination centers to be closed.

"Long overdue start of vaccination"

You may still work through the appointments booked in vaccination centers, but at the same time the field of vaccinations must finally be left to the resident doctors, said the president of the general practitioner association, Ulrich Weigeldt, of the "Augsburger Allgemeine".

The general practitioners were shocked and stunned that "the long overdue start of vaccinations in our practices will continue to be put on the back burner."

"Meanwhile, millions of vaccine doses are lying around unused in cost-intensive vaccination centers, the anonymity of which older people in particular shy away from," said Weigeldt.

In fact, according to figures from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), only a fraction of the cans delivered are inoculated.

However, statistics have their pitfalls.

It can take a few days for vaccinations to be reported.

The federal states also said that vaccination doses were already recorded as delivered if they were still on the truck.

A large part of the supposedly useless cans lying around is already planned for specific dates.

The recommendation that AstraZeneca initially only offer the vaccine to people under the age of 65 also caused problems.

The restriction has now been lifted.

But it is precisely people in professions with a high risk of infection that unexpectedly advance in the vaccination sequence.

Booking systems had to be adapted.

In addition, there was initially a skepticism about the supposedly less effective vaccine from AstraZeneca.

Meanwhile, however, the vaccine is well received, it was said from the federal states.

If you put all these factors together, there are significantly fewer vaccine doses lying around unused than many might assume.

SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach assumes that the previously "stored" vaccine will soon be gone very quickly.

Mainly because older people can now also be vaccinated with AstraZeneca and because in many places the second dose is no longer bunkered.

As a result, more people can receive a first dose faster, which already offers a certain protection according to the first analysis.

"Everyone now demands pragmatism when vaccinating," wrote Lauterbach on Twitter.

"But the vaccine is simply missing." In fact, only just under 70 percent of the existing vaccination capacities have been used up, a simulation shows.

According to the responsible federal and state ministers, vaccination centers should be delivered with 2.25 million doses in April.

Only vaccines that are also available should go to medical practices.

The Federal Ministry of Health is assuming that the weekly amount of vaccine will not be sufficient until mid-April to supply doctors in private practice if the federal states want to use their vaccination centers to capacity as before.

And there is a good reason to use vaccination centers to their maximum capacity.

Because there the prioritization can be adhered to better - and that saves human lives.

Most recently, the incidence has fallen significantly in people over 80, who are at a particularly high risk of getting seriously ill or dying from Covid-19.

The number of deaths is also falling.

That is a success of the vaccinations and the shutdown.

Now that the number of new infections is rising noticeably again with the agreed easing, it will be all the more important to protect people at high risk in particular.

When fewer people go to hospital or die, the pandemic becomes less of a horror.

One thing is clear: medical practices should and must be involved in vaccination.

There is no doubt about that.

The only question is when is the right time.

If the vaccine is also delivered to doctor's offices, health professionals will have more freedom of who should get the vaccination first.

This was also recently called for by Ethics Council member Wolfram Henn.

Health Minister Spahn sees it similarly.

"The doctors know their patients and know who is to be vaccinated first."

At the moment, however, it is still too early to soften the vaccination sequence, warns Lauterbach.

Only a prioritization minimizes the number of deaths that would have to be expected in the third wave.

The currently popular deviation from this strategy is scientifically "unfortunately not justifiable".

Lauterbach expects that medical practices will not be able to be included in the vaccination program on a large scale until May, because more vaccine will then probably be available.

He sums up the current dilemma as follows: »Now there is no vaccine in the vaccination center.

Open practices now means: He's missing there too. "

With material from agencies

Icon: The mirror

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2021-03-12

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