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After criticism of a letter campaign by the Ministry of Social Affairs for people over 80 to start vaccination, there will be a second information campaign about the municipalities.

The ministry announced in Hanover on Thursday that they should write to the elderly using the registration data available to them.

The ministry's campaign was criticized because Deutsche Post * was commissioned to write to relevant households using incomplete address lists from Deutsche Post Direkt GmbH.

It was criticized that not all people over 80 years of age would be reached.

This should now be guaranteed with the letters from the municipalities.

The ministry initially defended the chosen path.

In the middle of the Corona crisis, they wanted to avoid commissioning the 409 registration authorities to quickly compile address lists.

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In addition, for reasons of data protection, it is not permissible to pass the reporting data from the authorities on to a private service provider for dispatch.

The Ministry itself could not shoulder the sending of such a large number of letters.

The costs amounted to around 28,000 euros plus postage and VAT.

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It also said: The cover letter is an additional service to specifically inform older people living at home in writing about the start of vaccination, emphasized a ministry spokesman.

Nobody has to rely on such a letter to arrange a vaccination appointment on January 28th.

The Greens MP Meta Janssen-Kucz had previously criticized that the state government had plenty of time to clarify the question of comprehensive information.

Perhaps the government should find out about other federal states where the municipalities have been obliged to inform those affected about the vaccination procedure.

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The CDU MP Uwe Schünemann also advised those affected to be informed about the registration offices in a joint letter from the municipalities and the Ministry of Social Affairs.

"This allows the respective municipality to offer additional organizational information and, for example, a transport service individually."

The FDP MP Susanne Schütz emphasized that all those eligible for vaccination should be treated equally, including when they are informed by post.

If there are legal obstacles to the use of the registration data of the authorities for sending by a private service provider, these would have to be eliminated in a fast-track process.

* Correction: The first version of this text referred to DHL instead of Deutsche Post.

The company responsible for shipping is different than originally communicated by Deutsche Post