How the corona times are changing. In the spring the question was how the scarce vaccine can be brought to the people as quickly as possible. What infrastructure is necessary so that the vaccines can quickly find their way from the central warehouse of the federal government to the federal states - and then via the vaccination centers to the upper arms of the citizens. But in the meantime the will to vaccinate has waned, especially the controversial drug from the manufacturer AstraZeneca is lying around in the vaccination centers. At their meeting in mid-June, the federal and state health ministers therefore decided that unused vaccines could be returned. The only requirement is that the funds can be kept for at least two months. A form from the Federal Ministry of Health in which the federal states can indicate how many units they would like to return,has meanwhile arrived in the countries.

Kim Bjorn Becker

Editor in politics.

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Christian Geinitz

Business correspondent in Berlin

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According to research by the FAZ, the states want to send back at least 850,600 units of the AstraZeneca corona vaccine to the federal government.

In the end it should be a lot more.

The federal states have until August 9 to report the desired excess quantities to the Jens Spahn (CDU) ministry - and on Friday many could not estimate exactly how much will remain in the vaccination centers.

In Hesse, for example, it is about 170,000 to 190,000 units.

"The unopened multidose vaccine container from AstraZeneca can be stored in the refrigerator for up to six months at two to eight degrees Celsius," said a spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior in Wiesbaden.

A spokesman for the health administration in Berlin confirmed that around 62,000 units of the vaccine are to be returned to the federal government. Another 22,000 units will be added from Saxony-Anhalt. Baden-Württemberg alone is planning to return almost half a million doses of the vaccine from AstraZeneca. But that's not all. "Unfortunately, due to a lack of demand, about 4000 doses of this vaccine expire at the end of July," said a spokesman for the Ministry of Social Affairs in Stuttgart. "They will be disposed of properly."

The move sparked incomprehension and outrage among the opposition in the Bundestag. "It is a debacle that not all vaccine doses can be used in several federal states and some even expire and have to be disposed of," said the chairman of the FDP parliamentary group, Michael Theurer, on Friday. "That must absolutely be prevented in the future." In general, the vaccination campaign needs "new momentum", as Theurer said. "Young adults in particular should be more in focus." By Thursday, 51.5 percent of the population had been fully vaccinated against Corona. 61.5 percent had received at least the first injection.

But what exactly does the federal government do with the excess vaccine doses from the federal states? For one, the cabinet has decided to give away at least 30 million units from AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson to third countries. That should start in August. 80 percent will be made available to the Covax initiative; Germany is the second largest donor there. The rest is given bilaterally. According to information from the FAZ, the federal government also wants to store large quantities of vaccines itself; a dose per inhabitant, i.e. more than 80 million, is under discussion.