In the debate about the corona vaccination of children under 12 years of age, the Stiko boss sent mixed signals. Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder criticized him for it.
Munich – After the corona summit of the federal and state governments on Thursday (December 2), Prime Minister Markus Söder announced the new corona measures for Bavaria. Söder also emphasized the importance of vaccination to end the pandemic. Because the Stiko boss sent mixed signals, he has now received criticism from the CSU boss.
Child vaccination: Söder criticizes Stiko boss
In addition to the announcement of contact restrictions for unvaccinated people, 2G regulations in retail and the introduction of ghost games in the Bundesliga, Markus Söder could not resist a swipe at the chairman of the Standing Vaccination Commission, Thomas Mertens.
Söder said in a press conference on Friday (December 3rd) that Germany now has to prepare the vaccinations for children, for which there is already a European approval. In view of the low vaccination quota, Söder finds the attitude of the Stiko boss with regard to child vaccination “strange”. Of course, it was his personal right, how he handled this with his children, soothed Söder. “But of course that leads to a deep question of bias when the Stiko boss announces it himself in the podcast before an official recommendation comes from Stiko.”
Stiko boss expresses concerns about child vaccination: “No data at all”
Mertens had on Wednesday (December 1st) in FAZ podcast for Germany stated that he would not currently vaccinate his own seven-year-old child. He justified his decision by stating that, apart from the registration study, there was “no data” on the tolerability of the vaccine in the group of children between the ages of five and eleven. In addition, statements about long-term effects are hardly possible from the current publications.
Mertens criticized that the 18- to 59-year-olds’ unwillingness to be vaccinated should now be compensated for by vaccinating the children. The virologist stated that the commission was in the process of finalizing the recommendation. You can expect it to be around December 11th, he said in the podcast of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
“Wrong political decisions can not be corrected by a vaccination,” said the Stiko boss and criticized the changing mood of the politicians. The measure for a vaccination recommendation could not be the changing mood of the public and politicians. Precisely because corona infections in children are usually harmless, you have to be all the more sure that the vaccination is well tolerated in the long term.
Söder criticizes Stiko for recommendation in podcast: Stiko’s credibility weakened
Markus Söder, on the other hand, complained about the behavior of the Stiko boss: “I believe we should return to normal procedures with regard to the security and stability of the vaccination recommendation and not announce this in talk shows or podcasts.” This would weaken the recommendation capacity and the credibility of the Stiko enormous, so Söder. (sf)
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