Hamburg, Germany – The US has a long way to go coronavirus vaccine distribution, but it is far ahead of most other countries. This also applies to Germany, where many have chosen to wait one vaccine over another, instead of just taking the picture that is most available.
The US has 60 million doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca Vaccine ready to roll out as soon as the FDA approves it. As CBS News correspondent Chris Livesay reports, that vaccine is already available in Germany, where COVID-19 cases have been on the rise lately. The hardest part is that the Germans are taking over.
At Germany’s largest vaccination center in Hamburg, 35-year-old surgeon Johannes told us he would like to get his first shot so that he could stop worrying about the risks of possible transmission of the disease from the hospital to his partner . and their newborn son.
But now that the offer has actually come for an injection of the AstraZeneca vaccine, Johannes admits that he is ‘a little scared’.
“I thought I was the [Pfizer]-BioNTech vaccine, but now I’ve heard that the decision has been made that I don’t understand, “he said.” I was really disappointed. “
It is a scene set in the most powerful country in Europe. Germany has already received more than 1.4 million doses of the AstraZeneca drug, and they are distributed at vaccination centers across the country, such as the one in Hamburg.
But polls show that about half of Germans don’t want it.
More broadly, the European Union, which organized the purchase of all vaccine doses collectively for its 27 Member States, has secured as many as 400 million doses of the vaccine developed in the UK.
Clinical studies suggested that the AstraZeneca formula was between 60% and 90% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 infection – lower than the 95% efficacy Pfizer / BioNTech reported in their studies.
Then the German National Vaccine Committee declined to approve the AstraZeneca for people over 65, citing a lack of data from the studies showing that it worked well in those older individuals.
The backlash was swift, significant, and even spread beyond Germany to other major European countries, including France, where the vaccine was only recently approved for use in older people.
Germany finally seemed set to change course on Thursday as the National Vaccine Commission formally recommended the government to allow the AstraZeneca injection for use in all adults, including those over 65, under pressure from senior doctors in the hospital. country.
But the damage was already done and it could take time to correct it. Many Germans just don’t trust the AstraZeneca vaccine – despite new, realistic data from the UK suggesting the shot is real more effective than the Pfizer vaccine in preventing hospitalization – a stunning breakthrough, according to immunologist Thomas Jacobs.
“We don’t have the best and second best; we have two very effective and safe vaccines,” he told CBS News, referring to the drugs approved for use in Germany. He said there could be a “little bit” of simple snobbery when it comes to Germans turning their noses on the British-developed vaccine in favor of the Pfizer vaccine, which is, after all, made in part by the German firm BioNTech.
The director of the vaccination center in Hamburg said it was a clear first world problem.
“You know, they are people – you want the best,” Dirk Heinrich said to Livesay. “If you have the chance, you want to drive a Porsche instead of another car.”
Because many Germans refuse the AstraZeneca ‘other car’, most doses of it are already in cold storage in Germany.
Compared to nearly 15.3% of Americans who had their first vaccination shoot, less than 6% of Germans have had theirs.
But as Johannes told CBS News, “we all want to get back to normal life,” and the changing perception of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Germany could help build on the already rising number of injections being given there and across Europe. administered.
Chancellor Angela Merkel came out earlier this week to defend the AstraZeneca vaccine. She met with state leaders from across Germany on Wednesday to discuss the next phase of the pandemic response in the country, where life is still largely locked up.