Berlin – The German government coronavirus reaction has fallen into chaos. Chancellor Angela Merkel was forced to withdraw a last-minute order for a strict Easter lock this week – and accepted that there was no time to implement the measure despite increasing contagions.
It was just the latest misstep of its coalition government, facing devastating criticism for its response to the pandemic, particularly the faltering vaccine rollout
The need to boost vaccinations becomes more urgent as a third wave of COVID-19 infections spreads across Germany. The head of the government’s health department warned on Friday that Germany could see as many as 100,000 new cases per day if the spread of the disease is not curbed.
Europe’s largest economy, along with its partners in the European Union, has lagged far behind the UK and US when it comes to administering vaccinations. As of this week, only about 10% of Germany’s adult population had received at least one vaccination syringe. That’s compared to 55% in the UK and 25% in the US. Germany is not even on the list of the top 20 countries in terms of vaccination coverage worldwide.
While the European Union struggles with vaccine manufacturers to get more doses, supply is far from the only factor behind Germany’s low vaccination rate. According to official statistics, there are approximately 3.9 million doses of both the Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines nationwide.
The country is also making slower progress compared to other EU countries, which have received about the same number of vaccines per capita. Denmark and Estonia, for example, have already administered more than 160 doses per 1,000 inhabitants. Germany is below the European average at 125 per 1,000.
Advocates of the German approach point out that some of the unused vaccine stock has been deliberately withheld to provide second doses. But the federal government extended the recommended number of weeks between doses in mid-February, in part to address that problem.
The decentralized nature of the rollout has made it difficult to shift the blame to any particular entity. Germany’s 16 states are responsible for organizing vaccinations in their own jurisdictions. Under pressure after her party failed to win two regional elections earlier this month, Merkel appealed to state officials this week to avoid unnecessary bureaucracy, which she said would hinder vaccination efforts.
Dr. Joachim Wunderlich, a cardiologist who has helped staff at a local vaccination center in Berlin, told CBS News that the bureaucratic process of getting people vaccinated in Germany was “incredible” and the amount of paperwork was “insane.”
“You can’t expect an over 80 to fill out 10 pages and dozens of consent forms and ask them to call a hotline to make an appointment,” he said. “And then they run the risk of being rejected because they forgot some forms at home.”
In particular, public confidence in the AstraZeneca vaccine has also been a huge problem. The government, along with several other EU countries, suspended use of the shot for a few days earlier this month after reports that people who had had it were developing spot clots.
Even after the European Medicines Agency clearly stated after a data review that the vaccine was safe and that the benefits of taking it outweighed the risks, health professionals across Germany said many of their patients were still reluctant to make an appointment for the injection.
Fears of blood clots came after Germany, followed again by some of its EU partners, initially refused to allow the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for people over 65, citing a lack of empirical data from studies showing that it is effective. was for that age group. That hesitation came despite significant real-world evidence from the UK, where the drug was already being administered to seniors, that it helped prevent serious illness.
With a few exceptions in remote areas, where doctors can offer vaccinations, only dedicated mass vaccination centers and mobile units visiting nursing homes are currently authorized to administer the injections. Across the country, those facilities are still running at just 67% of their capacity, which translates to about 100,000 unused appointment schedules per day.
But Germany has still only given the green light to people over 80, and those with serious pre-existing conditions, to make appointments, leaving many younger people eager to take a picture unable to take advantage of the excess capacity. .
Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit, a virologist at the University of Hamburg, told CBS News that while prioritization was imperative, a little more flexibility would make Germany’s vaccination control much more efficient.
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“Right now we are vaccinating the 80 year olds and the most vulnerable members of society, which is important from an ethical point of view. Taking into account the supply shortages, we need to stick to this priority for now, but the whole thing. process must go faster. ”
The government has pledged to speed up the rollout by allowing all general practitioners in Germany – general practitioners or general practitioners as they are commonly called – to administer vaccines at their local practices.
“Germany has a well-functioning GP infrastructure. If they were hospitalized, we could vaccinate at a much faster rate, and that’s a long time ago,” Schmidt-Chanasit said.
Wunderlich agreed.
“I know my patients, I know their concerns and their pre-existing conditions. I don’t want them to call a hotline if they can just call their doctor and get the shot in my office,” he told CBS News. . “The pandemic is daunting enough, but bureaucracy and data protection laws should not make matters worse.”