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A medical worker prepares a dose of Novavax's coronavirus vaccine for vaccination during a study (stock image)
Photo: Alastair Grant / dpa
Almost every seventh adult in Germany is still not vaccinated against Corona.
Some of these people are suspicious of the four vaccines available so far.
Now the first doses of the vaccine from the US manufacturer Novavax are to arrive in Germany.
"We expect the first delivery to start on Monday," said a spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of Health.
Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) announced on Friday that 1.4 million doses were expected on Monday.
It is hoped that the Novavax vaccine will be an alternative for those who have reservations about mRNA vaccines.
But whether this will have a broader impact is not certain.
The most commonly administered vaccines in Germany - the funds from Biontech / Pfizer and Moderna - are mRNA vaccines.
Before Corona there were no approved vaccines based on mRNA.
This makes some people suspicious.
Like the vector vaccines from Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca, mRNA vaccines are based on our body cells making a small part of the virus themselves - the spike protein.
This triggers an immune response that protects us.
The Novavax vaccine, on the other hand, is based on a more traditional process.
It consists of virus-like particles containing the spike protein of the coronavirus and an effect enhancer.
It is considered an inactivated vaccine, i.e. a vaccine without living, reproductive pathogens.
In science, however, this concept is not clearly demarcated from others;
According to the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko), the other four vaccines are also "functionally" dead vaccines, i.e. they do not contain any living viruses.
It is up to the states to start the vaccinations
In mRNA vaccines, the so-called messenger RNA (messenger ribonucleic acid, mRNA) in the vaccine delivers part of the genetic information of the virus to the human cells.
With this information, they produce a protein of the pathogen against which the body then develops defense reactions.
When the first vaccinations start varies from state to state.
This should often be the case in the first week of March.
Vaccination campaigns with Nuvaxovid are planned in Lower Saxony at the beginning of March.
It also starts in Hamburg at the beginning of March.
In Berlin, the distribution should probably start on February 28th.
According to a survey, around 1,800 of 4,000 unvaccinated hospital employees in the capital were interested in vaccination with Novavax.
From Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where Novavax vaccination appointments have been able to be arranged since February 9, the social department said at the end of the week: "Unfortunately, the registrations are falling short of expectations."
tfb/dpa