Criticism of Halle's Sonderweg: Mayor admits early vaccination

Criticism of Halle's Sonderweg
Mayor admits early vaccination

Currently in Germany only people with the highest priority level are vaccinated due to the shortage of vaccines. Bernd Wiegand, Halle's Lord Mayor and ten city councilors still received a vaccination. Wiegand admits that and defends himself.

Halle's Lord Mayor Bernd Wiegand and ten city councilors have already been vaccinated against Corona, contrary to the order specified in the vaccination ordinance. Wiegand said at a press conference that he received his first vaccination on January 17th as a result of a random selection process from leftovers from a hospital. The "Mitteldeutsche Zeitung" had previously reported on the vaccinations.

He stands by the procedure and its decision, said Wiegand and rejected criticism. He considers questions about who from the administration apart from himself and the ten city councilors were vaccinated prematurely to be problematic. "You could almost say that this is a witch hunt on the people who are vaccinated." He did not announce his first vaccination of his own accord, as it was a private matter. The second appointment is still pending.

So far 585 people in Halle have been vaccinated with leftover doses, said Wiegand. Before the vaccination, he made sure that no hospital employee was available for a spontaneous vaccination at the time, said the mayor. Halle's medical officer Christine Gröger, who was there for the vaccination, confirmed this.

The city developed the procedure for handling leftover vaccine earlier this year to avoid wasting the short-lived vaccine, Wiegand said. Accordingly, if doses were left over at the end of the day, the vaccination teams would first call people with the highest priority level. These include people over 80 years of age, residents in old people's and nursing homes, nursing staff and medical staff who treat people with Covid 19 or patients who are at high risk of a severe course.

"No understanding if vaccination sequences are ignored"

If these people cannot be reached in 15 minutes, a further candidate will be selected from a pool of rescue services, medical specialists, city councils and members of the civil protection team at random. According to the Ministry of Health, the procedure was not discussed with the country. The vaccination regulation also applies to leftover doses, said a spokeswoman.

The state government criticized those responsible and asked them to explain themselves. “I have no understanding whatsoever if nationwide vaccination sequences are disregarded,” said Health Minister Petra Grimm-Benne from Saxony-Anhalt. "That goes for Stendal, that goes for Wittenberg, that goes for Halle." You will first get a report, said Grimm-Benne. "But one thing is certain: Saxony-Anhalt will receive vaccine from the federal government. And it has been determined who should receive it in the first priority." There are no special contingents for the police or politics. "And that's just as well."

In the past few days, several cases of vaccinations had become known that had been carried out against the order specified in the regulation. The vaccinations from Stendal first became known on Thursday. The district said it had carried out a field trial in January to test how many people outside of the vaccination centers can be vaccinated. Police officers were taken as test subjects: 320 of them received their vaccinations during the test in mid-January.

On Friday the MDR reported that the district administrator of Wittenberg, Jürgen Dannenberg from the Left and his deputy Jörg Hartmann from the CDU had been vaccinated – on December 26th – before the official vaccination start. Dannenberg and the district could not be reached for comment. The Ministry of Health confirmed that it had requested the districts of Stendal and Wittenberg for a written statement.

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