Every fifth young person in Germany between the ages of 12 and 17 has now received a first vaccination against the coronavirus.

Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) tweeted this on Saturday.

In absolute numbers there are 900,000.

In May, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved the Covid-19 vaccine from Biontech / Pfizer for children and adolescents from the age of twelve, and the approval for Moderna followed a few days ago.

For Germany, however, the Stiko has so far only recommended vaccination for children and adolescents with certain previous illnesses who have an increased risk of a severe course.

The reasons given by the Stiko were a lack of data on the safety of the vaccine.

According to Spahns, 61.6 percent (51.2 million people) of the total population in Germany are now vaccinated once, 52 percent (43.2 million) have been vaccinated completely.

More advertising and positive incentives for vaccination

Meanwhile, politicians and researchers are calling for more advertising and positive incentives to win over skeptics for a corona vaccination. The previous campaign of the federal government is not enough, said the parliamentary group leader of the Left Party in the German Bundestag, Jan Korte, the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND). “The federal government has done too little to make vaccination against COVID-19 a matter of course,” says Kortes in a concept paper for a “vaccination summer 2021” that is available to the RND.

The left-wing politician calls on the government to include social actors such as trade unions, sports associations and religious communities, but also clubs and cultural institutions in a joint vaccination campaign.

"It has to be about getting people to vaccinate who don't feel well informed and have fears that can be taken away from them."

The Central Council of Muslims in Germany emphasized that two thirds of the mosque communities in Germany offer vaccination campaigns, especially on weekends.

"The response, also in the non-Muslim neighborhood of the places of worship, is high," said the chairman, Aiman ​​A. Mazyek, the RND.

At the same time he called on Muslims to get vaccinated.

Vaccination parties or financial incentives?

The Göttingen fear researcher Borwin Bandelow considers targeted advertising to be sensible in order to win over the undecided for a corona vaccination.

"Now - as in television advertising - the reward system of the people has to be addressed," he told the "Bild" newspaper (Saturday).

"Why not have vaccination parties with a great band playing, where there might be a lottery and grilled sausages?"

The Karlsruhe economist Nora Szech, on the other hand, advocates financial payment to vaccinated people.

You do not believe that low-threshold vaccination offers and information campaigns are enough to motivate more people to vaccinate, said the economist of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) the RND.

"That was not enough in any country."

Instead, Szech demands that people should get money for vaccination.

“In our studies, the willingness to vaccinate increases from almost 70 percent without a vaccination bonus to 80 percent if 100 euros are paid.

For 500 euros, the willingness to vaccinate even goes towards 90 percent. "

"Vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate"

The President of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), Siegfried Russwurm, also called for vaccinations. “Indeed, we are currently in a race between vaccine penetration and new virus variants. It is not said that Delta will be the last, "said Russwurm in an interview of the week on Deutschlandfunk (Sunday):" And the only way that seems plausible to me - and I have not yet heard any other suggestion from scientists - is : vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate. ”Russwurm added that he was not a fan of the catchphrase mandatory vaccination.