B.Unhealth Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) defended the quota for the vaccine from BioNTech / Pfizer, but apologized for the confusion of the past few days. At the same time, he assured that there were enough doses for everyone, both for basic immunization and for boosting. He knows that the short-term switch from BioNTech to the Moderna vaccine in the vaccination centers will lead to “additional effort and stress,” said Spahn on Monday in Berlin.
Doctors’ practices have to change their processes and do a lot of persuading patients, which has led to anger among doctors. “I know that, I also regret that,” said Spahn. “We should have communicated more clearly that we are not holding back something, but rather delivering everything.” The additional effort arises from the fact that 20 cans are drawn from the Moderna bottles, but a maximum of seven from those from BioNTech. BioNTech has to be processed in the practices, Moderna does not. In addition, Moderna is only recommended for people over the age of 30. Only half doses are used for booster vaccinations, while BioNTech uses the full doses. All of this caused irritation and protests among doctors and vaccinees at the weekend.
Spahn: We’re not holding anything back
Spahns Haus had announced that it would only make a maximum of 30 doses of BioNTech available to medical practices in the coming weeks. The need beyond that must be covered by the vaccine from Moderna. Spahn said the reason for this step is that the demand for basic and booster vaccinations has risen sharply in the past two weeks and that orders are focused on BioNTech’s particularly popular vaccine. That’s why six million doses of it would be given out to vaccination centers this week. In the coming week, this scope of delivery is no longer possible, then only two to three million could be spent, about as many as last week. “We cannot follow all orders,” said Spahn.
Unfortunately, the impression arose that Moderna was being used because the shelf life of the first batches would expire at the beginning of next year. “Of course that is one aspect, but not the decisive one,” said the minister in Berlin on Monday. “It is crucial that the BioNTech vaccine empties so quickly in the warehouse that only two to three million doses are available per week.” But Spahn also said that one should ask oneself whether it is “ethically responsible” for vaccines to decay while they are scarce elsewhere in the world.
By the end of the year, 24 million cans from BioNTech and 26 million from Moderna would be available, 16 million of which are already in stock. These more than 50 million units “are enough for everyone,” says Spahn. “Everything that we have and have been delivered new is delivered, we hold nothing back.”
The President of the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI), Klaus Cichutek, made it clear that both mRNA vaccines are equally effective and safe and can also be combined. “Both vaccines are equivalent, the data leaves no doubt about that.” Cichutek called Germany a “land of milk and honey” with a sufficient number of very good vaccines. This is also thanks to the “forward-looking policy”, not least of the Federal Ministry of Health. It is an “inappropriate discussion” why the two equivalent vaccines should not be interchanged.
Leif Erik Sander, head of the research group for infection immunology and vaccine research at the Charité University Hospital in Berlin, also spoke of a “gift” that all German citizens would have free access to the best available Covid-19 vaccines. Moderna and BioNTech are “identical in terms of design” and there are indications that Moderna even has slight advantages. “The choice of the mRNA vaccine doesn’t really matter.”
Everyone has to get vaccinated; Achieving immunity through infection is not an alternative, as this route could overload the health system, Sander said. Spahn put it drastically: “By the end of this winter, pretty much everyone in Germany – it has been called a bit cynically: – will have been vaccinated, recovered or died. But it really is. With the very contagious Delta variant, this is very, very likely. And that’s why we strongly recommend the vaccination. “
At the end of this week, the minister expects the BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine for children from 5 to 11 years of age to be approved by the European Medicines Agency. The EU, and thus also Germany, received the first deliveries on December 20th. The time is necessary because the children’s cans are measured and filled differently. Germany received 2.4 million doses for this age group “in one fell swoop”. The cohort consists of 4.5 million people, so that a large part of the initial demand can be met. Spahn expects further deliveries in the first few months of the new year.
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