Vaccination strategy: Why are the “old people” vaccinated first?

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The good news first: The coronavirus vaccine is within your grasp.

The first vaccine doses are already on their way to Great Britain, and in the EU too, the approval of the first of hopefully many vaccines seems to be only a matter of a few weeks.

The bad news is that it will take some time before normality returns.

At least until summer.

Until then, the individual population groups must be vaccinated little by little.

On Monday the Standing Vaccination Commission (STIKO) specified its recommendations.

First of all, the medical staff in emergency rooms and residents and employees in nursing homes are to be vaccinated.

That seems logical because they are exposed to the virus on a daily basis and keep the health system running.

It would be wrong to write off the younger ones as not in need of protection

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Then it's people from the age of 75 and then from the age of 70.

But is that really the best way?

There has been no discussion about this in Germany so far.

It would be wrong to write off the younger ones, i.e. the 18 to 40 year olds, as having little need for protection from the start.

Because there are certainly arguments for including the young from the beginning.

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At the end of a discussion, the result can of course be that the older ones are first.

But the younger ones also have the right to know why their turn comes later.

The sequence of vaccinations will not always be immediately understandable.

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The group of over 65-year-olds in Germany alone includes over 18 million people.

And not all of them are equally at risk.

Reality shows that anyone who lives in a residential or retirement home is exposed to particularly high risks.

Those who, on the other hand, have just retired, are now living in their house with a garden and otherwise have little forced contact with other people, do not need a very quick vaccination.

When it comes to distribution, those who have to go to work every day have to queue up again.

Who cannot do a home office, but are on the line in factories.

And the boys are forgotten again.

"Expect it to start very early next year"

In Great Britain, the corona vaccine is already being distributed to the vaccination centers there.

Germany hasn't got that far yet.

First the European Medicines Agency (EMA) wants to make a decision on the Biontech drug.

Source: WELT / Dirk Schommertz

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Students, for example, some of whom don't know any of their fellow students.

The very ones who bear the costs of the crisis and at the same time have to accept the greatest restrictions on their freedom.

And that in a phase that is so essential for the development of personality.

Vaccinating this group early on also makes sense from an epidemiological point of view.

Because it is precisely this group that distributes the virus extremely strongly.

Initial preliminary studies show that this is the most effective way to contain the spread of the virus.

The authors of the study also come to the conclusion that the more effective the vaccine, the more likely it is that young people should be vaccinated first.

The protection of the vaccine from Biontech and Pfizer is over 90 percent.

So explain to the younger ones why they still have to wait so long.

Time and again this crisis has shown that there is a lack of explanations.

Many decisions in dealing with the pandemic are incomprehensible to people.

The population should therefore be involved as early and intensively as possible on the most important question of the coming weeks and months.

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