Sunday 21 November 2021
Dispute over Biontech lids
Spahn admits errors in communication
The Federal Minister of Health wants to limit the distribution of Biontech vaccination doses in the next few weeks. This is met with strong criticism from the federal states and doctors’ representatives. Taking back the upper order limits is also not possible because the demand is too great, countered Spahn.
The acting Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn defended the upper order limits he had announced for Biontech vaccines. At the same time, he admitted failures in communication. Spahn emphasized that taking back the much criticized Biontech cover was not possible. “I can’t withdraw it because it’s simply a question of the amount available,” said the CDU politician evening on the ZDF program “Berlin direkt”. “We’re not holding anything back. I can’t deliver a vaccine from Biontech that isn’t there.”
The demand has increased insanely in the last two weeks, “we will be delivering six million Biontech cans from tomorrow alone,” said Spahn. Due to this massive demand, “our Biontech warehouse is currently running empty”. “And it is simply the case that at the moment (…) – that is, from the week after next, when the big delivery was made – I don’t have more than two to three million vaccine doses of Biontech available.” He admitted: “We should have communicated that more clearly.” But there is a good, just as effective alternative with the vaccine from Moderna. “So the key message is: there is enough vaccine,” stressed Spahn.
In a letter to the federal states, the Federal Ministry of Health announced that it would limit the amount of orders for the Biontech vaccine for the next few weeks. For this, the preparation from Moderna is to be used more frequently for booster vaccinations. For the time being, practices should be able to order a maximum of 30 doses of Biontech per week, vaccination centers and mobile vaccination teams 1020 doses. There should be no upper limits for orders from Moderna. By the end of the year there will be enough vaccine for everyone with a total of around 24 million doses from Biontech and 26 million from Moderna. In addition, the vaccines are equivalent. Nonetheless, there is strong criticism from federal states and doctors’ representatives because there is fear of uncertainty among patients and significant additional work in practices – and thus a kink in booster vaccinations.
The dispute over the upper order limits will be a topic again on Monday. In the afternoon, the health ministers of the federal states and Spahn will advise on the corona situation. At the Conference of Health Ministers of the Federal States (GMK), the order limits will also be discussed, as the Bavarian Health Minister and GMK Chairman Klaus Holetschek had announced. The CSU politician had also asked Spahn to withdraw the plans. Spahn will appear in front of the press in Berlin on Monday morning. The topic of the press conference announced at short notice is vaccination with Moderna and Biontech.