In the current corona vaccination campaign, the practices in the Rhineland want to do without the vaccine from AstraZeneca in the future, according to the family doctors' association.

That said the head of the North Rhine General Practitioners Association, Oliver Funken, of the "Rheinische Post" on Tuesday.

“Astra-Zeneca is increasingly becoming the slow seller among vaccines.

Politically, he was simply talked to death.

The current Stiko recommendation still supports this.

Many patients want to switch to Biontech, ”says Funken.

Therefore, one is now forced to do without Astra-Zeneca, although it is a good vaccine that also protects against the Delta variant.

"We will now discard the vaccine and use Biontech," said Funken.

"For family doctors this means organizational stress"

Many patients wanted to be able to switch to Biontech, often also because this way they can get a second vaccination faster.

That is understandable, so Funken.

“On the other hand, this means organizational stress for family doctors.

Appointments have to be reassigned, vaccines have to be planned differently, ”said the chairman of the North Rhine General Practitioners Association.

The Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) surprisingly announced last Thursday that people who had received a first dose of the corona vaccine from AstraZeneca should in future receive an mRNA vaccine like that from Biontech or Moderna as a second syringe, regardless of age.

The German Society for Immunology, meanwhile, assumes that herd immunity against the coronavirus cannot be achieved without vaccinating children and adolescents. “Classically, one assumes herd immunity when 60 to 70 percent of the population is protected against the pathogen. However, this assumes that the pathogen cannot multiply in these people, ”said Vice President Reinhold Förster of the newspapers of the Funke media group.

With Sars-Cov-2, however, it is different: people could transmit the virus even though they were not sick themselves, although they were vaccinated and completely symptom-free.

With the Delta variant, the situation has worsened: “It is much more contagious.

It affects young people and children very much, ”said Förster.

"As long as this group has not been vaccinated at all or only a little, we will not get herd immunity."

From the point of view of the Robert Koch Institute, at least 85 percent of 12 to 59 year olds and 90 percent of people aged 60 and over should be fully vaccinated in the fight against the Delta variant.

"If this vaccination quota is reached in time, a pronounced 4th wave in the coming autumn / winter seems unlikely," says a paper by the RKI that was published on Monday.

According to the President of the World Medical Association, Frank Ulrich Montgomery, herd immunity is “not achievable in the short term”. "The ten percent who do not want to be vaccinated to kill will achieve their immunity by going through an illness," said the head of the World Medical Association. That will happen "if we drop all precautionary measures".