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Oh, oh, oh AstraZeneca.
Jens Spahn had first suspended the vaccine because of the sinus thrombosis cases.
Now several university hospitals have pulled the rip cord.
This time, doctors decided on their own.
This has a signal effect: on Tuesday afternoon, several federal states, cities and districts stopped the vaccinations on their own initiative.
These included NRW, Berlin, Brandenburg as well as the city of Munich and the district of Heinsberg in NRW.
The federal states of Thuringia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt, on the other hand, do not want to restrict vaccinations for the time being, but rather wait for the advice of the federal government and the states.
AstraZeneca's vaccine had an image problem from the start.
At first the group slouched in the important phase 3 study, then the effectiveness of “only” 70 percent faded next to the brilliant values of Moderna and Biontech.
Homemade communication errors and social reservations about vaccinations mix in the problems to an unpleasant mixture.
Now AstraZeneca's vaccine is no longer just the worst of all vaccines, but also the most dangerous.
Was it right to stop the vaccination again?
Experts disagree, once again.
Too many questions are still open: What exactly happens in the body?
Why does it mainly affect women?
Why is the UK not reporting more cases?
13.7 million doses of AstraZeneca have been vaccinated in the UK, but only four cases of sinus thrombosis have been reported.
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In this country, 2.7 million people received the vaccine, the Paul Ehrlich Institute reported 31 suspected sinus thrombosis cases, nine people died - seven women between the ages of 20 and 63 and two men.
Nine unfortunate deaths as opposed to 2.7 million successfully vaccinated and protected from the virus.
The bare numbers speak clearly in favor of the vaccine: If the mortality from the vaccination were just as high as that for Covid-19 in the 30 to 59 age group, then 1,350 women would have died of sinus thrombosis and not nine.
However, people do not think or feel in statistics.
Vaccinations are voluntary; if you do not need it, you expose yourself to an intervention that is supposed to protect you from something that you do not yet have.
If it does harm, even if only very rarely, it creates fear.
The women's concern is understandable, especially since the other vaccines would offer less risky options if there were no bottlenecks.
The local vaccination ban is understandable.
That the Standing Vaccination Commission recommends AstraZeneca only from 60 onwards, too.
However, if the federal government decides to stop nationwide again, trust will continue to erode and the sluggish vaccination campaign will be delayed even more.
That would be the greatest vaccine damage.