Germany and vaccination - it remains complicated.
At the beginning of the year there was too little corona vaccine, too much since late summer.
On Tuesday evening, Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) then surprised with the news that there will be a shortage of vaccine in the first quarter of 2022.
This resulted in an "inventory".
He promised talks with the manufacturers.
Less than 24 hours later, the all-clear: the federal government will buy more vaccines for 2.2 billion euros.
Of the money, 80 million doses of the Biontech vaccine are to be procured via EU contracts and a further 12 million doses directly.
The Ministry of Health announced this on Wednesday evening after the Bundestag budget committee had approved.
Julia Löhr
Business correspondent in Berlin.
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Werner Mussler
Business correspondent in Brussels.
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Thiemo Heeg
Editor in business.
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Before that, a storm of indignation had swept across the country.
Citizens worried that their January vaccination appointments would still take place.
Medical representatives were also appalled that the vaccination campaign, which had just gotten going again - most recently there were more than 6 million vaccinations per week - could end abruptly.
The Union accused the Minister of Health of dramatizing the situation: There was enough vaccine.
"Karl Lauterbach calls fire to then play the fire brigade - although he knows that there is no fire," said health policy spokesman Tino Sorge.
Lauterbach countered that evening on ZDF: "We can deliver 1.2 million cans of Biontech for all of Germany in the next week, 800,000 cans the following week and then another 1.2 million cans," he said.
"But that is much less than what the doctors call up every week."
Biontech ready to talk
The background to the back and forth is that due to the high number of infections with the delta and the growing spread of the omicron variant, the need for booster vaccinations is higher than expected. As recently as October, Lauterbach did not consider a prompt “booster” to be necessary for anyone who had been vaccinated twice; it is now urgently recommended. At the same time, with the introduction of the 2-G rule in gastronomy and retail, the demand for first and second vaccinations has increased. The Central Institute for Statutory Health Insurance in Germany (Zi) expects that 54 million vaccination doses will be required for first, second and booster vaccinations in the first quarter of 2022 if the interval between the second and third vaccination is to be six months. With an interval of four months, a total of 57.1 million doses would be required.
How many vaccination doses the federal government originally agreed with the manufacturers for the beginning of 2022 remained open on Wednesday, as did the question of when the doses that were still in stock would expire.
As of Monday, almost 2.8 million Biontech and 16 million Moderna cans had not yet been inoculated.
Recently, vaccinators had often received less Biontech than ordered.
However, not all those willing to vaccinate want Moderna's preparation.
Taskforce no help in the short term
The task force on vaccine production created by the federal government in the spring is of no help, at least in the short term. Its head, Christoph Krupp, had set the goal of building reserve capacities in Europe for the production of 500 million cans per quarter. At the moment, however, the task force is still in the process of “negotiating internationally compatible pandemic readiness contracts with suitable companies”, as a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Economic Affairs announced. The mandate of the working group was therefore extended by three months to the end of March.
After Lauterbach's warning of the impending shortage, Biontech had already shown itself ready to talk.
"As before, we will try to support short-term delivery needs pragmatically with earlier or additional deliveries, if the need arises," announced the company.
So far, deliveries have been made on schedule and the contract for 2021 has been fulfilled and deliveries have started under the new contract.
In the coming year, Biontech and its partner Pfizer will manufacture 4 billion vaccine doses.
According to the current status, 12 million doses per month are planned for Germany from January to June, which are distributed among adults and children.
EU Commission signals support
The EU Commission also indicated its support. However, some in Brussels were not entirely clear about the needs of the German Minister of Health. “In general, we still have the main problem that some Member States do not get enough vaccine because there is too little vaccination,” it said with a view to countries such as Bulgaria and Romania, where only 25 and 40 percent of adults are “completely” (i.e. twice) are vaccinated. According to EU diplomats, Member States such as Belgium, France and Spain, in which the booster rate is higher than in Germany, have not yet registered any additional requirements.
The EU has ordered a total of 4.2 billion doses of vaccine for the period up to around mid-2023. Biontech / Pfizer accounted for 2.4 billion doses and Moderna for 460 million. The EU has thus secured almost 3 billion doses of mRNA preparations, which are considered the first choice vaccine in Germany. In addition, there are 400 million doses each of the vector vaccines from Astra-Zeneca and Johnson & Johnson (J&J). The EU drug agency EMA is currently examining the effectiveness of two other preparations that the EU has also ordered, from Sanofi and Novavax. The Novavax vaccine is expected to be released before Christmas. The EU Medicines Agency EMA also continues to recommend the J&J preparation, but considers a booster vaccination every two months to be necessary. Side effects of the J &J vaccine are not yet known.