The new vaccine against Corona is expected to be available in September.

This is the assessment of the Hessian Health Minister Kai Klose.

Together with his Rhineland-Palatinate counterpart Clemens Hoch (SPD), the Green politician opened the national vaccination conference in Wiesbaden on Tuesday.

Klose justified the fact that the substance under development was not available in the spring, as originally announced, with the high dynamics in the mutations of the virus.

Ewald Hetrodt

Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung in Wiesbaden.

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The vaccine will also be adapted to the omicron subvariants and can be further modified later, the two health ministers explained.

They expect that the dynamics of the infection process will increase again after the summer holidays and holiday returnees will bring new variants from abroad to Germany.

The European Medicines Agency is planning to approve the new vaccine in the fall.

For many people, when it's available, it's "like a new iPhone coming out," Hoch said.

Klose advised those who are older than 70 or belong to a vulnerable group not to wait for the new substance.

The Standing Committee on Vaccination recommends that they have their fourth vaccination now, and with good reason.

It prevents a serious course of the disease.

Incidentally, this applies to all vaccinated people who are surprised that they got infected despite the vaccination.

If the symptoms are mild, this is also due to the vaccination protection.

The number of people willing to be vaccinated has increased

Klose reported that all vaccination campaigns have hardly impressed people as the pandemic has progressed.

Instead, the number of people willing to be vaccinated has increased as the number of infections has increased.

On Tuesday, the rate in Hesse was 74.6 for the second vaccination and 57.4 for the third;

the Rhineland-Palatinate values ​​are slightly better.

In the case of four vaccinations, the proportion in both countries is in the order of seven percent.

All in all, the two federal states are in the middle in the Germany-wide ranking.

In a European comparison, Germany does poorly.

The fact that the topic of vaccination has been on everyone's lips for years must be used, said Hoch.

With regard to children, it now has a high level of social acceptance.

However, this does not apply to the same extent for adults.

"We have to get to the point where the vaccination card check with the family doctor becomes an absolute routine," added the minister.

Against the background of the current immigration, Klose reported that basic immunity still had to be established for many refugees from the Ukraine.

The vaccination against measles will also be made up for.

"Vaccination is the greatest medical achievement that mankind has ever produced," said Hoch.

It prevents diseases from occurring in the first place.

Klose said that the technologies developed against Corona meant a "turning point" in protection against infections.

The participants in the two-day vaccination conference, which has been taking place every two years since 2009 and was postponed in 2021 due to the pandemic, come from science and research, health policy, the public health service, doctors from clinics and practices.

Health insurance companies and industry are also represented in the Wiesbaden Kurhaus.

Corona is not the only topic in the direct professional exchange.

For example, it is also about diseases in the context of climate change and new hope in the fight against cancer and AIDS.