Boris Palmer on AstraZeneca: "Three times the wrong decision made"

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Germany in the thirteenth month of the pandemic: The vaccination rate leaves a lot to be desired, test concepts are more likely to be found as local pilot projects than as a nationwide strategy, and AstraZeneca, one of the hopefuls had to be temporarily put to the test.

On the other hand, the incidence numbers are rising across the country and with them so is the frustration.

After all, vaccination with AstraZeneca will start again on Friday - but how many people still want to be administered the substance?

And so the fight for trust in the vaccination campaign is currently picking up speed, which they also waged on ZDF talker Illner.

"Hope with risk - vaccination without trust?" Was the title of the program.

Berlin's Governing Mayor Michael Müller (SPD), Tübingen's Lord Mayor Boris Palmer (Greens), general practitioner Birgid Puhl, Frank Ulrich Montgomery, President of the World Medical Association, virologist Corinna Pietsch and "BAP" singer Wolfgang Niedecken discussed.

The bitter fate of a vaccine

"We made the wrong decision three times when dealing with the Astra vaccine," recapitulated Boris Palmer, visibly confused.

Firstly, the approval took too long, then the elders of all people were kept away from the vaccine and now the temporary stop has caused great uncertainty.

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This was confirmed by Birgid Puhl, who is active in the Hamburg vaccination center and it was also last Monday when the vaccination was suddenly stopped: “At some point during the vaccination, the message about the Astra vaccine came across all tickers, that was a special situation . "

Why did things go so badly in Germany, asked Palmer - and answered himself: “Our safety culture always means that all documents have to be together, that all regulations have to be met and that all officials have said yes.

And the British are more likely to have 'trial and error' and say: If the direction is right, we'll get started. "

Release with warning notice

Frank Ulrich Montgomery didn't want to leave it like that.

After all, the Greens have taken care of the strict rules that the European approval authority has to adhere to.

He didn't believe in unchecked emergency approvals.

"You want to keep the rules, I want to get the pandemic under control," Palmer called in between - Montgomery replied: "You did the rules yourself, Mr. Palmer, with your party, and the rules are good." - Palmer on the other hand: "But before the pandemic." This dispute could no longer be resolved that evening.

At least they both agreed that resuming vaccination was absolutely right.

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The task now is to rebuild people's trust, says Montgomery: “You have to tell people very clearly: With vaccination, out of a million people can get 13 serious diseases, but if we don't vaccinate a million, then 5,000 will become 10,000 die. ”Virologist Corinna Pietsch also liked the review of the last few days for the sake of transparency, as did the current release.

Their assessment of the results was "that women under 55 were mainly affected." So that this group is particularly well informed about possible symptoms, there is now a warning.

Catching up with speed

In the end, there is now almost a week of loss of time plus a loss of trust that is difficult to measure - Michael Müller remained optimistic: “I think we can catch up with speed, but we also have to change things in general.” Müller demanded that the focus be on the first vaccination to lay, which should now receive as many people as possible as quickly as possible.

To do this, he demanded an extension of the period up to the second vaccination and one also had to talk about prioritization.

He explicitly mentioned young people who are particularly mobile, have numerous contacts and whose vaccination could break many chains of infection.

Now we need openness, says Müller: "After protecting those who needed it most to be protected, we now have to become much more flexible - and take company doctors and general practitioners online with us much faster." That was how Birgid felt Puhl, who made one thing very clear for herself and her family doctor colleagues: "We are all ready, we can do it, we very much hope that the bureaucratic hurdles will not be high."

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Montgomery agreed with them.

“At the moment it still fails because of this: Less than a quarter of the vaccine comes from AstraZeneca.

The others still have the logistical problem. ”CureVac, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca should become the main vaccines, according to Montgomery.

"You can inoculate them in the normal way and store them in the normal way - that's the future."

Niedeckens vaccination call

"Of course I would get vaccinated," assured the almost 70-year-old Wolfgang Niedecken.

He looked back on the fight against the pandemic to date with mixed feelings.

At the beginning he was still impressed by the great unity in politics - and that was also important.

In the meantime, however, the political turmoil began with the election campaign, which is unsettling the people.

"If people then experience that politics hit each other and such a drag arises, then, I believe, that does not help people to really develop the confidence to be vaccinated," says the "BAP" - Singer who has not played a concert since August 2019 and has had to postpone his current tour plans a few times.

He sees the vaccination as the key to being able to stand in front of an audience again soon.

He also promoted Illner for this: “I can only ask to be vaccinated, because this is the only way we will get this herd immunity at some point, and then you can play concerts again and get together in larger crowds - without it nothing will, otherwise it will that will take forever. "