Everyone who vaccinates in Germany is facing the most difficult time since Corona existed.

In the coming weeks and months they should not only vaccinate all adults who have finally decided to have a primary vaccination.

You should also give everyone else a booster vaccination.

And, in order to increase the rush even more, they should also vaccinate all children who are older than five years from Christmas time.

A recommendation from the Standing Vaccination Commission for the children's version of the vaccine is expected for the period shortly before Christmas.

Justus Bender

Editor in politics of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

  • Follow I follow

In the spring there was little vaccine, the prioritization groups got their turn one after the other, the people waited well for many weeks until it was their turn.

Now they all come at once.

Stephanie Goldhammer is the medical director of EcoCare, which operates nine vaccination centers.

She says: "It really is a storm." Iris Minde, who runs a vaccination center in the Technical Committee of the City Council and in her St. Georg Clinic in Leipzig, puts it this way: "The onslaught is enormous, and you are literally overrun." People are "very unpleasant, and discussions often arise".

The clinic had to use security guards.

Long lines in front of the vaccination centers

Long lines form in front of the vaccination centers. Some want a booster quickly, others are there for the first time and want to ask questions. "A twenty-minute consultation is difficult to reconcile with the goal of vaccinating as many people as possible in one day," says Goldhammer. The atmosphere is also unusual for many. The family doctor likes to chat, but it's different at the vaccination center. A citizen might say that he is taking anticoagulants and whether that is a problem. And because the vaccinators don't do anything else all day, they know the anticoagulant very well and also the answer: No, no problem. After that there isn't much more to say, it has to go on, but sometimes it scares people. You don't feel taken seriously if the conversation is short.

The time to chat is becoming increasingly scarce with the general practitioners, Anke Richter-Scheer's working hours give an idea of ​​this. She is in her family doctor's practice in Bad Oeynhausen at seven in the morning with all of her employees, and she goes home at 8:00 p.m. In between, she vaccinated 240 people. And there are always new patients coming who want an injection that “cannot be done that way”. In addition to her practical work, Richter-Scheer is also the chairwoman of the Westphalia-Lippe Family Doctors Association, and she vaccinates in mobile teams in the district. So she knows the whole vaccination system and knows that family doctors do many other things. There are many people with colds, they are also vaccinated against the flu, and the waiting rooms are full. "We are tired."

Politicians are to blame for the misery, she says.

In December there is a lot of things that could have happened earlier.

One example is the summer vacation.

“The vaccination centers were empty during the holidays, the schoolchildren were not vaccinated because politicians and the Standing Vaccination Commission could not agree on a recommendation.” The incidences are currently very high among unvaccinated adolescents.

Much of it could have been prevented.