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Vaccination of a schoolgirl in Munich (archive picture)
Photo: Sven Hoppe / dpa
Corona vaccinations have so far protected people in Germany well against serious illnesses.
And they also still noticeably reduce the risk of infection.
This is based on new data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), which the institute added to its weekly management report on Friday.
According to the RKI, it is the first time that the institute has published data on the number of Covid 19 cases cared for in intensive care units and who have died with a likely vaccination breakthrough.
According to these statistics, since the beginning of February only one fully immunized person under the age of 60 has died after a so-called probable vaccination breakthrough as a result of corona disease.
According to the RKI definition, a vaccination breakthrough is likely if a patient tests positive at least two weeks after the completed vaccination series and shows symptoms.
In total, the RKI recorded 335 deaths after likely vaccination breakthroughs.
This corresponds to 1.5 percent of all people in Germany who have died on and with the coronavirus since the beginning of February.
According to RKI statistics, 58.5 percent of the population in Germany are fully vaccinated;
in fact, the rate is likely to be significantly higher.
Only six percent of intensive care patients are fully vaccinated
"The figures clearly show that the vaccinations provide good protection - especially against severe courses," said Carsten Watzl, Secretary General of the German Society for Immunology, to SPIEGEL.
This is still the case now, since the highly infectious Delta variant is circulating in Germany.
However, the protection for vaccinated people from infection is now noticeably decreasing.
In view of the steep rise in incidences and increased reports of vaccination breakthroughs, Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) is considering offering all citizens a corona booster vaccination.
In the United States, President Joe Biden has already promised this.
In this country, according to Spahn, the federal states are first gradually starting the so-called booster vaccinations in the care facilities and for people who are particularly at risk.
Such targeted immunizations make sense, said Watzl, who heads the immunology research area at the Technical University of Dortmund.
Comprehensive third-party vaccinations for the entire population, however, are not yet necessary at this time in view of the data situation.
Up to and including last Tuesday, the RKI had registered 13,360 likely vaccine breakthroughs.
Among them were 6927 since July 19.
So the breakthroughs are increasing.
Overall, however, since July 19, fully vaccinated people had only just under 15 percent of all registered symptomatic corona cases.
Their share in the total population is about four times as high.
Conversely, 85 percent of the cases would be accounted for by around 40 percent of the population who are still unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.
However, the RKI adds that it cannot be ruled out that "the current dynamics in both vaccination rates and infection probabilities, as well as possibly different test behavior among vaccinated and unvaccinated people, lead to distortions" in the statistics.
The difference in hospital admissions is even greater than for infections.
Of 3,235 people hospitalized for Covid-19 since July 19, 261 were fully vaccinated.
That corresponds to a good eight percent.
The even lower proportion than in the case of infections suggests that the vaccines fulfill their most important function: to protect infected people from becoming seriously ill, said Watzl.
“The goal of vaccination is not to prevent it from scratching your throat.
But: not to end up in the intensive care unit. "
According to the RKI statistics, 76 people have been cared for in German intensive care units since the beginning of February because of a Covid 19 disease after likely vaccination breakthroughs - around 0.8 percent of all corona intensive care patients.
There have been 17 such cases since mid-July, among a total of 319 corona intensive care patients listed by the RKI.
That corresponds to almost a six percent share.
However, it is unclear whether the institute has recorded all new corona intensive care patients in its statistics.
The RKI press office could not be reached by phone on Saturday.
The risk increases with age - even for those who have been vaccinated
According to the RKI data, 139 Covid 19 cases who have died since mid-July were 19 people with likely vaccine breakthroughs, around 14 percent.
They were all at least 60 years old.
"Especially with older people there are always so-called vaccination failures, that is, cases of people who are not immune despite the vaccination," said Immun Watzl, explaining the relatively high proportion of those who were fully vaccinated among the dead.
“Such cases are registered as breakthrough infections.
In fact, however, these people have never developed protection. "
Nevertheless, Watzl considers booster vaccinations in this population group to be sensible for two reasons: on the one hand, many older people were vaccinated particularly early, on the other hand, they often have a weaker immune system.
"At the moment it is only necessary to vaccinate at-risk patients again," the immunologist told SPIEGEL.
"Most 40- or 50-year-olds who have now been double vaccinated will get through the winter well." Doctors are vaccinated. "
According to the statistics portal "Our World in Data", only 1.3 percent of the population in the lowest-income countries on earth have received at least a first-time vaccination.