Germany assesses possibility for private companies to start vaccinating their employees with their own resources

Asked about its vaccination plan, the government of Angela Merkel under pressure from the companies that make up the German stock market index Dax to speed up mass vaccinations and They offered to make a contribution so that things can finally move faster and return to some normalcy.

The The most representative corporations and associations in the country offer to vaccinate employees and their families and, in some cases, even the self-employed, with their own resources due to a low vaccination rate.

The head of Pfizer Germany, Peter Albiez, adheres to this initiative, considering it necessary that the paralyzing vaccination campaign be strongly accelerated thanks to other initiatives. In an interview with the German press, he said that “companies have good relations with their employees and can help with vaccination“.

In addition to assuming the costs, Albiez He added that organizations can be included in the existing strategy because “they have a network of doctors in their structures that can be used“.

Join the great Dax

Companies such as Adidas, Deutsche Bank, Allianz, Deutsche Post, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens Yes Axel Springer Verlag, the latter, a group to which the German newspaper belongs picture, responsible for the advancement of part of the project.

Purpose of a meeting between businessmen and the chancellor Merkel This Friday, the meeting will be a space for executives to explain the idea of ​​making their own offers to employees and the environment through their company’s doctors.

Prior to the meeting, the federal government was cautious. According to known information, the authorities prefer to first discuss the strategy with the professional association (BDI) and the employers’ association (BDA) which support the idea, to render a verdict.

The businessmen, agreeing with the opinion of the boss of Pfizer, want to show that the doctors of the company could safely and quickly motorize the German vaccination campaign, questioned since its creation and which opposes the country to the European Union.

Currently, the medical staff of large industrial groups have extensive experience, particularly through the influenza vaccines that they usually make available to their staff each year.

“We have to think in big steps, in big dimensions“. Looking ahead to the next few months, we must “mobilize everything“Said the executive of Pfizer, Albiez, one of the managers of the pharmaceutical company that produces the development of the German biolab BioNTech.

“We can and want to vaccinate”

The brand manager Adidas, Kasper Rorsted, spoke out in favor of allowing its employees to be vaccinated, voluntarily and as soon as an injection is widely available.

“We are already doing this today with the flu shot“, He said Rorsted, according to the newspaper picture. The representative of the sports brand added: “We can also imagine helping other companies to create a vaccination offer for their employees, as far as this is logistically possible.“.

To understand the magnitude, the big banks in Frankfurt could become vaccination centers for employees, since it is estimated that they have 12,000 internal doctors.

Another director who referred to the initiative was the head of the automaker Opel, Michael lohscheller. While presenting the record of the manufacturer – now part of the supergroup Stellantis – which has brought in another million in operating profits despite the coronavirus, he asked to be allowed to vaccinate.

“We can and want to vaccinate our Opel employees as soon as possible. We want to vaccinate for free, we have a team of company doctors, we could, if the vaccine was available, vaccinate 500 people a day. Of course, we also want to strictly adhere to the prescribed sequence of vaccines, ”he explained.

On the other hand, the German giant Siemens is already working with the Merkel government to collaborate on the campaign. The group, a world leader in the energy, health, industry and construction sectors, has made its medical teams available to join various vaccination centers in the coming months.

Brazil with a similar proposal

Brazil’s powerful “Industrial Coalition” has already launched a proposal to add private participation in the state’s coronavirus vaccination plans.

The country, which in recent hours has seen another death record of coronavirus, received the initiative to import 33 million doses for their workers on behalf of a group of companies. The offer includes a donation of almost half for government strategy, which the president analyzes Jair Bolsonaro.

In the German case, the idea of ​​companies is another point of discussion for the next summit between Chancellor Merkel and the country’s leaders. However, at the last meeting, it was said that company doctors and companies should participate in the vaccination campaign “in the second quarter”.

In all cases, professional organizations have stressed that the political orientations on the vaccination sequence and prioritization will be governed by official determinations, explaining that participation seeks to accelerate the speed of vaccination, but also allow a more rapid return to Productive “normality”.

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