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Corona in Germany: It doesn't work without the booster vaccination for everyone

2021-11-16T19:09:31.223Z


Germany is heading for the corona disaster. The third vaccination for everyone could alleviate the looming misery. The vaccine is there - but the will to administer it is lacking.


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Third vaccination against Corona (in Dresden): This spade is »not a bonus, not a luxury, but absolutely necessary«

Photo: Robert Michael / dpa

Germany is facing a virus winter that no one here should ever forget. Tens of thousands of corona patients will die. Clinics are being overloaded. In a few weeks' time, doctors will have to triage and choose who to treat and who not. All the misery that scientists, politicians and citizens have tried to avert with immense effort and sacrifice since the beginning of the pandemic, all of this threatens to become a reality now. The country without a government lacks the strength to resist when it is exhausted.

In addition to the lockdown, which nobody wants, there is now above all a way to severely limit the extent of the impending catastrophe. The booster vaccination for everyone has to come - as soon as possible. The necessary vaccine has long been available, it is just not being used adequately; it is as if the fire brigade had no more desire for extinguishing water.

In the meantime, doctors know: Many of those who have been fully vaccinated have already lost their vaccination protection, at least in part, because the effect of the vaccines wears off significantly after just four months.

The booster can perhaps even restore this protection permanently.

"After the third vaccination, it is not only where it was after the second vaccination, but much better," as Dortmund immunologist Carsten Watzl said in SPIEGEL.

The third injection causes the number of antibodies to multiply within seven to ten days to a level that can prevent very many infections, severe courses, hospital admissions and deaths.

Vaccine in the refrigerator, not in your arm

Israel successfully stopped its fourth wave with the booster.

Germany could do that too.

The vaccine is there, but it stays in the fridges and doesn't get into enough arms.

How can that be?

In the middle of the worst wave of infections so far, Germany is currently affording a blatant state failure.

It seems that there is no longer anyone in health policy who understands the urgency of the issue and takes action.

Everything should now revolve around the booster, the vaccination centers should be reopened rapidly, an awareness campaign in the media should try to convince the vaccinated of the benefits of the third spade as well.

50 million people in this country need the booster, not least to protect the 14 million unvaccinated people from infection. Only four million elderly and health care professionals have received the booster vaccination so far. Still-Chancellery Minister Helge Braun (CDU) believes it is necessary that 20 million people receive the third injection by Christmas, but he does not know how to do it all at once.

I am willing to booster - and like many others I still fail to get boosted. My family doctor doesn't have appointments again until January. In Hamburg, where I live, there are lots of free vaccination appointments in shopping centers or churches, even without prior notification. Only: only people over 70 are vaccinated there. All the younger ones are sent home despite the abundant supplies; let them get infected. In the meantime, particularly clever people have outsmarted the system: They claim they went for the first vaccination - and thus get No. 3. The documentation of this dose in the Covid pass would then be difficult.

The withholding of vaccines in the current situation is simply sabotage of the vaccination protection of the population.

It will cost many lives.

The Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) at the Robert Koch Institute, whose recommendations are strictly adhered to by countries such as Hamburg, is responsible for this deficiency.

"In a few weeks," said Stiko boss Thomas Mertens at the beginning of the month, she would comment on the booster for everyone.

Since then: silence.

While the number of cases is now exploding and vaccinated people end up in hospitals, nothing happens at the Stiko that suggests that they did not understand the seriousness of the situation.

The secret of German immune systems

Stiko now wants to evaluate the booster studies from other countries and then check whether their results could also be transferred to Germany. Apparently she assumes that German immune systems are different from all others. The same applies to the question of whether five to eleven year olds can be vaccinated. In the USA, the responsible authorities recommended vaccination as early as the end of October. But Stiko still wants to take its time with its decision, although the infections in the classrooms and families are rising and rising.

Unlike Germany, many countries have understood that there is a fire now and that everything must be extinguished now.

The UK and Italy offer the booster to anyone over 40.

Everyone over 18 gets it in New Zealand and Canada.

France makes the booster compulsory for everyone over 65 years of age and makes it available for everyone over 50.

Who does not boost, endangers the success of the previous vaccination progress.

Boosters alone can prevent the fourth wave from being followed by the fifth.

The USA has so far been as narrow-minded as Germany.

Booster vaccinations are reserved there for people over 65 years of age.

However, some health politicians ignore this regulation.

The city of New York has approved the booster for all adults, as has the state of Arkansas.

The world famous immunologist Anthony Fauci appeals to follow suit.

The data from Israel undoubtedly showed that the double vaccine booster was “not a bonus, not a luxury”, “but an absolutely essential part of the program” to combat the disease.

The booster helps in all age groups to avoid severe disease and death.

Is it fair to ask for boosters when, especially in Africa, less than five percent of people are vaccinated?

The question is wrongly asked.

A third vaccination is essential for everyone, without it you can save the first two.

The world must now ensure that global vaccine production finally catches up with real needs.

It is possible to give three vaccinations to each person.

You just have to want it and act accordingly.

And Germany should finally abolish the procrastination-Stiko. Its members work on a voluntary basis alongside their main occupations. Such an after-work committee simply cannot meet the requirements in the face of a rampant pandemic. Mike Ryan, Chief Executive Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) says: “Perfection is the enemy of good when it comes to emergency management. Speed ​​trumps perfection, and the problem we have in society right now is that everyone is afraid of making a mistake. "But the biggest mistake, according to Ryan, is" being paralyzed by the fear of failure. " But if you "always have to be right before you move, you will never win."

Ryan said this in March 2020, and to this day it sounds suspiciously like he was addressing Stiko directly.

Has she learned anything from the indirect hint of the epidemiologist, who was hardened in the fight against Ebola?

No.

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2021-11-16

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