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In Germany there are currently four vaccines against the coronavirus in use - actually.

If you take a closer look at the statistics of the federal states, almost everywhere only three vaccines are used: Biontech, Moderna and AstraZeneca.

The vaccine from the American manufacturer Johnson & Johnson, on the other hand, is for the most part on dump.

Specifically, according to the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG), 256,800 doses were delivered to the federal states by April 26th - but only 15,444 inoculated by Friday, May 7th.

This corresponds to a storage of around 94 percent.

Germany has therefore missed protecting 241,356 people against Covid-19 in the past few days with this vaccine alone.

The delivery quantities are still relatively small compared to the other providers.

The process is particularly noteworthy, however, because at Johnson & Johnson, the first vaccination offers full protection.

Use "in coordination" - two weeks after delivery

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In some cases there are plausible reasons for bunkering.

Overall, however, it is revealed that many countries were late in planning a tactic for vaccinating with Johnson & Johnson - and are also struggling with technical glitches that distort the reports.

WELT took a closer look at the numbers.

A survey among some state health ministries shows that clear strategies are still lacking in many places.

Bavaria, for example, would like to vaccinate “still in May”, both among homeless people and in individual companies.

Baden-Württemberg received 30,500 doses on Monday, but a spokesman cannot say when exactly these will be inoculated.

Johnson & Johnson also wants to use Hessen primarily where "where a second vaccination cannot be guaranteed due to the length of time".

The state's initial reception facility will begin “very soon”, and work is still being carried out on a concept for homeless shelters.

From other countries it is said that the use is "currently still being agreed" - mind you almost two weeks after delivery.

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"We had no prior information about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine," criticized Patrick Marx.

"Until April 23rd - a few days before delivery - it was unclear what should happen to it," said the pharmaceutical director of the Mülheim vaccination center in an interview with WELT.

According to the distribution key, the center should currently be entitled to around 500 doses.

So far, however, Marx can only access 65 of them - and assign zero appointments.

“The last two weeks would have been perfect in time to vaccinate Johnson & Johnson.

Because at the moment we are not running at full load - but there is soon a threat of a bottleneck due to the large number of first vaccinations and the simultaneous increase in the number of second vaccinations. "

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine will only be used for the first time in Mülheim on May 20, according to Marx - almost a month after it was delivered.

Then a vaccination with 70 doses is planned in the local diakonia - which corresponds to only around 15 percent of the amount actually available.

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Germany's tactics with Johnson & Johnson seem chaotic anyway.

On April 21st, Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn (CDU) said that the vaccines would be delivered to doctors' practices as soon as possible - this plan has apparently been overturned for the time being.

Two days later, for example, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia published a decree according to which the vaccine should primarily be inoculated in women's shelters, refugee homes and diakonia - now it is revealed that this planning came too late: in NRW, too, only fractions of the stocks have been used so far.

And the upcoming recommendation of the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) throws the chaotic campaign even more confused: According to the "Spiegel", the Stiko plans to recommend the vaccine from Johnson & Johnson only for people over 60 - as with AstraZeneca.

Younger people should be allowed to continue receiving the drug after medical advice - but especially in refugee shelters, prisons and hot spots, where there are often language barriers, this could lead to considerable difficulties.

In response to a request from WELT, the Federal Ministry of Health referred to the responsibility of the federal states - there, in turn, unclear guidelines are criticized.

"In Bavaria, vaccination with Johnson & Johnson was initially planned for companies and company doctors," says Michael Hubmann, medical director of the vaccination center in Fürth.

Instead, vaccinations should also be given in refugee shelters in Bavaria, among other places.

"We would like to do that too, but the process is more complicated due to the language barrier, and there is sometimes skepticism about the vaccination," says the doctor.

It has been known for weeks that legally secure clarification must take place in several languages, but it is only now that the public authorities are implementing appropriate concepts. In addition, for example, Arabic-speaking doctors and staff with experience in refugee work are being used for the vaccination campaign - their allocation and mobilization also takes time.

And the vaccination campaign with Johnson & Johnson poses another problem: the manufacturer is not a reliable supplier.

First the first batch was delayed - and then the Ministry of Health reported a cut in the second shipment.

"The second delivery will not have the originally forecast volume," said a spokesman for "Spiegel" last week.

Actually, 440,000 cans should have arrived at the beginning of May.

In the second quarter of 2021, the Americans want to deliver 10.1 million cans to Germany, and even 36.7 million by the end of the year.

Does the patent protection for the Biontech vaccine now fall?

The line between Biontech boss Sahin and Chancellor Merkel is good, they spoke on the phone about the surprising announcement from Washington.

And even if the quick supply of vaccine to poorer countries was definitely an issue, there was a clear no to a softening of patent protection.

Source: WORLD

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It is still uncertain whether this amount will be adhered to.

Because even of the ten million, only around 2.5 percent have been delivered so far - and according to the delivery schedule of the BMG, nothing will follow until the beginning of July.

Due to cases of extremely rare cerebral vein thrombosis, the vaccine has been suspended in the United States, but only temporarily.

The Standing Vaccination Commission has so far recommended it for all adults - but this could change now.

An official notification from Stiko is not yet available.

To make matters worse, there is now a technical glitch. For example, the Federal Ministry of Health in Bremen reported zero vaccinations with Johnson & Johnson on Thursday. But Lukas Fuhrmann, spokesman for the city state, explains when asked by WELT: “As of Wednesday, 1147 cans were inoculated in the city of Bremen and about 200 more in Bremerhaven.” In the updated statistics from Friday, the number 1385 is now given.

However, the format of the batch number differs from that of the other substances - which means that the numbers cannot be entered correctly in the reporting software called "Aeskulap".

Therefore, the vaccinations would not be reported to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), or only with a delay.

According to statistics, a total of eight federal states administered zero doses of Johnson & Johnson - how many are affected by the breakdown is still unclear.

In any case, the authority itself says on request that no information is available on a possibly distorted representation or breakdowns.

“We knew when the delivery from Johnson & Johnson was coming, so we planned in good time where and when it should be vaccinated,” says Fuhrmann.

Specifically, mobile teams drove to prisons, to the homeless and to refugee shelters.

Next, vaccinations are planned in parts of the city with a particularly high incidence.

However: Bremen has so far received 7,200 doses - and inoculated only around 20 percent of them.

But even with that, the city-state is still in the top third.

This pattern runs through the republic: For example, 210 homeless people in Bottrop were spontaneously vaccinated with Johnson & Johnson.

Hamburg, Aachen and other cities followed suit on Thursday and Friday.

But such individual actions cannot explain the massive gap in the statistics.

Many municipalities are therefore trying to inoculate the vaccine among those in need - and at the same time leave the vast majority of the cans on dump.

Homeless people were also vaccinated in Berlin

Lower Saxony and Berlin are big outliers when it comes to vaccination: According to ministry statistics - which are likely to be biased - around 90 percent of all Johnson & Johnson vaccinations are due to the two countries: In Berlin, homeless people and inmates of collective accommodation and prisons were vaccinated.

And in Lower Saxony, the first batch was given directly in high incidence municipalities, says a spokesman for the state.

"In the meantime, the vaccine is distributed to the vaccination centers in the normal way as with the other vaccines, with the stipulation that it be vaccinated as quickly as possible."

This is the current vaccination status in Germany

Thanks to the general practitioners, the vaccination rate has increased significantly in recent weeks.

And from June, the company doctors can also take part.

But even if things go well, things don't work out equally well in every federal state.

Source: WELT / Viktoria Schulte