Despite vaccination stop for AstraZeneca – large deliveries of the vaccine expected in Germany

Despite months of lockdown, new infections with the corona virus in Germany are increasing again sharply. The vaccination is tough, now the AstraZeneca vaccine is also breaking away for the time being.

Munich – Germany is not alone in this decision, but it is still causing criticism. Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) decided on Monday to suspend vaccinations with the AstraZeneca vaccine for the time being. The Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI) advised him to do this after eight cases of thrombosis. There were three deaths among the eight people. It mainly affected women of young and middle age. This step had also been taken in numerous other EU countries such as France, Italy and Spain or Sweden. A mistake?

Massive criticism of Spahn: EMA is sticking to AstraZeneca vaccine for the time being

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) remains convinced that the benefit of the vaccine – protection against Covid-19 * – outweighs the risk. There is currently no evidence that the blood clots that occurred in individual vaccinated people were caused by the AstraZeneca vaccine, said authority chief Emer Cooke on Tuesday. Your authority is now advising again on the British-Swedish vaccine and wants to come to a final assessment on Thursday. The EU Commission then hopes for a Europe-wide resumption of vaccinations with the corona vaccine from AstraZeneca. Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides is confident about Thursday’s assessment. “We are waiting for that and follow the EMA’s scientific advice,” she said on Tuesday.

The FDP and the Greens are also critical of the vaccination ban in Germany. The already slow vaccination campaign * could be even further delayed due to the suspension. “It is and remains a mystery to me how Mr. Spahn came to his decision. That causes confusion, it creates uncertainty in the whole country, “said Green parliamentary group leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt. The SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach * called the decision “a mistake”. FDP vice-president Wolfgang Kubicki even demanded the dismissal of the Spahn. The vaccination summit scheduled for Wednesday (March 17) has been postponed to Friday to await the EMA’s renewed assessment. In Germany alone, around 1.6 million people had been vaccinated with AstraZeneca before the stop.

Despite the stop for AstraZeneca – large deliveries are expected in Bavaria

Spahn’s decision, however, was defended by the head of the intensive care medicine association DIVI, Uwe Janssens. “Mr. Spahn can’t decide otherwise when the experts from the Paul Ehrlich Institute put such a message on the table for him,” he told Deutschlandfunk on Wednesday. The diseases were rare sinus vein infections. The number of thromboses that occurred after vaccination with AstraZeneca is significantly higher “than the number of cerebral vein thromboses that normally occur in the population without vaccination.” The PEI explains on its website. Only about one case was expected, but seven had been reported pending the recommendation for suspension.

In Bavaria, the Ministry of Health expects further deliveries for the time being, regardless of the current stop of the corona vaccinations * with the AstraZeneca preparation. From the beginning of March to the beginning of April, a total of 660,000 vaccine doses AstraZeneca were announced. “Of these, 309,600 vaccination doses have already been delivered, while the delivery of the remaining 350,400 vaccination doses is still imminent by the 13th calendar week,” the ministry in Munich announced on request. (mam / dpa / AFP) * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA

List of rubric lists: © Ronny Hartmann / dpa