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In Germany, more people are probably protected against the corona virus than expected. The RKI has corrected the vaccination quota upwards, criticism of Lothar Wieler is loud.
Berlin – politicians of the FDP and the Greens assume “political influence” on the Robert Koch Institute and criticize RKI boss Lothar Wieler. He is jointly responsible for the long school closings in Germany. On Thursday, the RKI announced that the vaccination rate had been given around five percentage points too low. The institute said that some vaccination centers do not report all vaccinations, which caused the bias.
Criticism of RKI boss Lothar Wieler: “Too close to the line of the federal government”
The politician of the Greens Dieter Janecek sees a joint responsibility of the RKI boss for the long school closings in Germany. “The RKI supported a course that paid special attention to children as alleged drivers of infection,” said Janecek to the image. The FDP health expert Christine Aschenberg-Dugnus said the Picture on sundayThat Wieler was “too close to the line of the federal government.” In addition, there was “no trace of error inspection”.
The FDP demands that the Robert Koch Institute no longer be subordinate to the Federal Ministry of Health. “We are working hard to guarantee the RKI political independence in the future,” the FDP politician continued.
“We suspected months ago that the vaccination rate was reported too low.” But the federal government has always denied this. “It’s October now, and Mr. Wieler has corrected the quota by five percent upwards. And it is pretended to be a success. ”In fact, the RKI had corrected the vaccination quota by five percentage points, not five percent upwards.
In addition, the RKI itself had already pointed out in August that there was a “certain uncertainty” with regard to the vaccination rate data. The information provided by the institute depends, among other things, on reports from the health authorities. The electronic data transmission does not always work well, said Brandenburg Health Minister Ursula Nonnemacher in August rbb.
Robert Koch Institute (RKI): This is how the different numbers come about
The background to the criticism is the too low specified vaccination rate of the Robert Koch Institute. Almost two months ago, the RKI itself pointed out that the actual vaccinations could be above the quoted rate. According to a report by the institute, there are various reasons for this: Some vaccination centers do not pass all vaccinations on to the RKI. Certain vaccinations are also not recorded in the statistics. The specified vaccination quota should therefore be understood as the “minimum vaccination quota”.
In order to compare the reported vaccination numbers with reality, the RKI used registration data and commissioned surveys. These should inquire about the vaccination rate in the population. The surveys had shown vaccination rates that were around five percentage points higher. According to this, 80 percent of the adult population could be fully vaccinated and 84 percent could be vaccinated once. The reported figures were 75.4 percent for those who were completely vaccinated and 79.1 percent for those who were vaccinated once.
A five percentage point difference would correspond to around 3.5 million people. The RKI raised concerns that people who were not ready to be vaccinated were underrepresented in the surveys, like them daily News reported. In addition, people with poor knowledge of German could not take part in the survey. There is a presumption that language barriers also lead to a lower use of the Covid-19 vaccination, according to the institute. The RKI did not initially comment on the allegations of the Greens and FDP.