Tuesday March 30th 2021
What will happen to the vaccination campaign?
The fear of Astrazeneca returns
From Frauke Niemeyer
It should be a safe and effective vaccine, but Astrazeneca can’t save its bad reputation. Many people who are eligible for vaccination do not need an injection. Now clinics first step on the brakes, then entire federal states. What does this mean for the vaccination campaign in Germany?
Only two weeks ago, Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn stopped the vaccination with the vaccine from the manufacturer Astrazeneca. The reason: Several cases of cerebral vein thrombosis occur in connection with a vaccination. After an examination, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) gives the green light and the drug is being used again in Germany – but only for a short time. After new deaths, several clinics stop the vaccination and thus almost trigger a wave. An overview:
What is the current problem with Astrazeneca?
The city of Rostock and the district of Euskirchen were the first: After two deaths in women temporally related to an Astrazeneca vaccination and a diagnosis of cerebral vein thrombosis, those responsible took action. The North Rhine Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians in the Euskirchen district and the Rostock University Medical Center as well as the vaccination center there stopped further vaccination of the active ingredient in certain risk groups. Women under 55 years of age or users of birth control pills, people with high blood pressure or who are overweight are considered to be particularly at risk. Even if the connection between the sudden death and the vaccination of the 49-year-old employee of the Rostock University Medical Center has not yet been finally clarified, the clinic management and the health department had decided to take this step.
Today, these incidents resulted in further appeals and measures every hour: Four North Rhine-Westphalian clinics, including the Cologne University Clinic, spoke out in favor of a temporary vaccination ban for younger women. The risk of further deaths is too high, according to a joint letter to the federal and state health ministers. The Cologne clinic is examining the connection between a thrombosis and an Astrazeneca vaccination in a patient.
This was followed by the Berlin Charité and the state-owned Vivantes Klinikum, with their own staff suspending vaccinations for women under 55 years of age, before Dilek Kalayci, Health Senator for the capital, had vaccinations for women and men under 60 years of age suspended for all of Berlin. In the meantime, the city of Munich and the state of Brandenburg have also taken the same step, the last one being added in the early evening in North Rhine-Westphalia. Canada announced on Monday that it would no longer vaccinate people under the age of 55 with the active ingredient from Astrazeneca for the time being.
What is the level of knowledge?
According to the Paul Ehrlich Institute, 31 people were affected by sinus vein thrombosis by the beginning of this week. With the exception of two cases, all reports concern women between the ages of 20 and 63. Two men fell ill, they were 36 and 57 years old. There have been nine deaths so far.
The Federal Ministry of Health states that the majority of severe cases occurred between 7 and 14 days after vaccination and mostly in women under 55 years of age. There are noticeably few men among the 31 affected, but the vaccine has so far been inoculated on far more women than men, especially women under the age of 55, because they make up a large proportion of the nursing staff in clinics as well as their upbringing and education. It has therefore not yet been conclusively clarified how much greater the risk is for women of contracting a brain thrombosis as a side effect than for men.
Is the vaccination campaign now coming to a standstill?
Almost 3.9 million doses of the Astrazeneca vaccine had been delivered for use in Germany by the end of March, which means that the company is well below its commitments (5.7 million) and has so far provided around a quarter of the vaccines used in Germany. However, as planned, this proportion will be lower in the coming quarter. According to the Robert Koch Institute, almost 2.7 million cans have been inoculated so far.
Both Biontech and Astrazeneca want to increase their delivery volumes significantly from April, so that the ratio would remain roughly the same. But with Johnson & Johnson, another player comes into play, the bottom line being that the delivery of around 10 million doses counts twice because with this vaccine only one vaccination is required. If Astrazeneca were to fail completely from April, Germany would have to do without an estimated one-seventh of its planned vaccine quantity by June. Possibly, however, the risk group for side effects can be narrowed down to such an extent that vaccination with the vaccine considered to be effective could be continued for people who do not have an increased risk of thrombosis.
What are the next steps?
Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder went one step further today than those who announced a vaccination freeze: He advocated the approval of Astrazeneca’s vaccine when prioritizing. He had “overall not a good feeling” about the experts’ assessments of the vaccine. Therefore you have to “operate with a lot of freedom at some point” and say: “Whoever wants and who dares, should also have the opportunity.”
The Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) recommends the corona vaccination with Astrazeneca in view of the “available, but still limited evidence” since the evening only for people over 60 in Germany. Also in the early evening, Health Minister Jens Spahn and his colleagues from the federal states discuss the use of Astrazeneca. It is said that Spahn will then submit a proposal for how to proceed. Later the Chancellor also intervened: Angela Merkel wants to connect with the country bosses to talk about how to proceed with Astrazeneca. Spahn and Merkel then give a joint press conference.
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