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You have already survived a lot here in the north of Hamburg.
For more than 800 years, old people and those in need of care have been spending their retirement years in the Hospital zum Heiligen Geist, the most traditional senior citizens' home in the Hanseatic city.
Neither the plague nor cholera let them get them down.
The coronavirus, Frank Schubert, the hospital boss, has firmly resolved that it will not succeed either.
And because that's the way it is, on this Sunday, shortly after eleven o'clock, a small queue forms in front of the hospital's ballroom: wheelchair users, employees, residents over 80 years of age.
They all want to be the first to be vaccinated here - premiere for BNT162b2, the anti-corona vaccine from Mainz.
For Frank Schubert the most beautiful “Christmas present” by far.
There is a lot going on in front of the vaccination center in the Hospital of the Holy Spirit in the Hamburg district of Poppenbüttel
Source: dpa
Nationwide, the big vaccination started this Sunday after the festival.
The 16 federal states each received 9,750 vaccination doses;
only Bremen, the small city-state, had to be satisfied with around half of the vaccine doses.
Two each are needed to protect a person from a Covid 19 infection.
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Punctual delivery, transport and provision of the sensitive vaccine are a logistical service, where it is important to ensure that it remains frozen for as long as possible - and is not shaken if possible.
In Upper Franconia and Augsburg, for example, the start of vaccination was delayed because it was initially not clear whether the cold chain could be maintained.
A cool box with tubes containing the Biontech / Pfizer vaccine - taken in Lübeck
Source: AFP
In a nursing home in Bad Windsheim (Bavaria), syringes that are supposed to be vaccinated are sorted into colorful containers
Source: REUTERS
The vaccination itself, explains the ENT doctor Dirk Heinrich, who is responsible for the vaccinations in Hamburg, is then a pretty banal process: stab in the deltoid muscle of the upper arm.
Injection, cotton pad, plaster.
Finished.
Nothing else than a flu or travel vaccination.
Only this time it is not just about the health of the individual, but also about the integrity of the whole country, Europe, the world.
So it has to work.
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In this respect, it is hardly surprising that, in addition to dozens of journalists and camera teams, some prime ministers also appeared in front of the old people's and care facilities selected for the vaccination premieres.
"For the first time actively facing the pandemic"
In Hamburg, for example, Peter Tschentscher (SPD) drove up.
Hamburg's First Mayor, a trained medical doctor, has made a name for himself as a knowledgeable corona measures warner and explainer in the past few weeks.
Hamburg's First Mayor Peter Tschentscher (SPD, left) in conversation with 84-year-old Karin Sievers (second from left).
She is the first female citizen of the Hanseatic city to be vaccinated
Source: Getty Images
On this morning he is fueling hope above all: he is very happy, says the Social Democrat, that the city and the country are now "actively facing the pandemic for the first time";
that the first step is to offer help primarily to those "who can become particularly seriously ill".
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As everywhere in Germany, people over 80 years old are vaccinated first in Hamburg.
For hospital boss Schubert, this decision was "a great relief".
In the past Corona months, he almost had to expand the traditional house in the Hamburg district of Poppenbüttel into a kind of fortress: every entrance in the spacious complex is locked.
Stop signs warn against unannounced entry into the houses.
Large posters remind of compliance with the hygiene regulations: "Mutual contact" for example "must be reduced to a minimum".
In addition, pre-registration, disinfection, rapid tests, strict rules of conduct.
The Hospital of the Holy Spirit has done pretty much everything possible and impossible to keep the virus out.
Of course, Covid-19 made it anyway.
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Currently, reports Schubert, 20 residents of the residential complex are infected with the corona virus;
some of them would need hospital treatment.
Ten residents of the Hospital of the Holy Spirit have died from or with Corona in the past few months.
Basically, however, the entire facility, all 1200 residents and all 900 employees are hostages of the pandemic.
According to Schubert, the character of the house was to “open up to the neighborhood”.
Instead, one has had to close oneself strictly since last March, seal off from the rest of the world.
Especially at the beginning of the pandemic, there was almost "dead silence" on the hospital area.
No events, no visitors, no zest for life, an enormous stress for all employees.
The hope is now greater.
And with it the pressure on the manufacturers of the vaccines and on the politicians.
"The limiting factor is the vaccine"
No matter how hard the mayors and prime ministers try this Sunday, none of them can hide the fact that there is far too little vaccine to actually contain the pandemic, at least for the time being.
The large vaccination centers that the federal states have built up out of the ground in recent weeks are currently empty.
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In Hamburg, for example, 7,000 vaccination doses per day will be distributed on the exhibition grounds at some point.
The vaccination center there is scheduled to go into operation in January.
According to the Hamburg Senate, just vaccinating the particularly endangered groups will then drag on until the end of February.
“The limiting factor”, as Mayor Tschentscher summarizes the current situation, “is the vaccine.” Unfortunately, the great hope is only available in small quantities for the time being.
Source: dpa;
Infographic WORLD / Jörn Baumgarten
Tschentscher's Bremen counterpart Andreas Bovenschulte (SPD) therefore called for the creation of new production facilities for approved vaccines after the vaccination premiere in his Hanseatic city.
In case of doubt, the state must offer the companies involved "additional incentives", Bovenschulte said in an interview with WELT.
Bavaria's Prime Minister Marcus Söder (CSU) had previously pointed out that “endless waiting” for the vaccine could reduce the willingness of the population to be vaccinated.
"It is therefore important to increase all capacities for the production of the vaccine."
Breakdown delays vaccination start in Upper Franconia
Shortly after the start of the large vaccination campaign across Germany, the first breakdown occurred: in several districts in Upper Franconia and Augsburg, the cold chain for deliveries of the vaccine was apparently interrupted.
Source: WORLD / Christina Lewinsky
A demand that Renate Meyer-Werle, 79, Bärbel Kukelies, 83, and Helene Brinkmann, 83, would certainly support.
The three senior citizens, residents of old people's apartments in the Hospital of the Holy Spirit, are not yet on their way to vaccinate on this premiere day, but they are eagerly poking around in front of the large ballroom of their facility that has been converted into a vaccination center.
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You don't get such a casserole every day up here in Poppenbüttel;
and by the way, the three are looking forward to the post-pandemic time.
“Traveling” for example, but above all “finally being able to hug everyone again”.
In the course of this week, the three sprightly ladies are still hoping for their vaccination and make a high and holy promise "that we will not go overboard afterwards".
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