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Every day in Germany, nearly 1,000 people still die from the coronavirus. And more than 10,000 people continue to be infected with the virus here within 24 hours. Thousands of people are treated in intensive care units.
The risk is particularly high for the elderly, who should be better protected by rapid vaccination. Each vaccination should help prevent the virus from spreading. But Business Insider research shows that individual countries are simply leaving vaccine doses unused instead of using them to immunize people.
To date, 63,600 doses of the Moderna vaccine have been delivered to 16 German states, according to lists released by the Ministry of Health on January 12. Another 91,200 doses are scheduled for January 31, according to the ministry.
However, according to figures from the Robert Koch Institute as of Wednesday, January 27, the regions of Brandenburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Thuringia and Hesse have not yet used any of the 63,600 doses of Moderna vaccine.
So, have Moderna vaccine doses been left for two weeks in some federal states? And this despite the fact that the vaccination centers of the federal states are not functioning at full capacity?
According to the minutes of the conference of federal and state health ministers on Monday, Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) also complained that the Moderna vaccine had not been used everywhere until present – apparently not in “five to six” federal states. The Department of Health responded to a question from Business Insider and declined to comment on it, pointing out that ministers’ discussions were mostly confidential.
However, a questioning with the States confirms that the doses of vaccine are indeed unused. A spokeswoman for the Hessian health ministry, for example, explained that the 4,800 doses already delivered on January 12 “are currently being used as a reserve” “to compensate for canceled or reduced deliveries”. The point is that the doses of Biotech and Moderna – other manufacturers have not yet received approval – should not be combined with each other, so what really needs to be compensated is open. Already, Hesse’s vaccination rate is lower than the national average.
Thuringia has also not used its 1,200 doses of Moderna vaccine delivered two weeks ago. They apparently wanted to wait for 2,400 more vaccine doses to be delivered over the weekend, and that doesn’t mean until February 3. Apparently, running a vaccination center before that date is deemed too costly, as a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health points out that the centers will only be open for a short time, then: “Because so little vaccine is available, Question centers will initially only be open three hours a day. “
In North Rhine-Westphalia, which has so far received 13,200 doses of Moderna, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health explained that the doses have gone to university hospitals, where half have also been vaccinated as planned. The other half is retained for the second dose of people already vaccinated. However, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) claimed that the reported non-use of doses was in fact due to a delay in reporting. However, according to the RKI, states should send their vaccination numbers to the authority daily by 8 a.m. by mail. Why the numbers of university clinics were not communicated to the RKI, neither the authorities nor the spokespersons of the ministry can say it.
A Business Insider investigation sent to the Brandenburg Ministry of Health, which received 2,400 doses of the vaccine, went unanswered.
Experts like Karl Lauterbach (SPD) were irritated by the vaccination process. He told Business Insider: “I don’t understand why the Moderna vaccine is not used immediately. Because it is particularly effective and has few side effects, it is especially useful in nursing homes. and when vaccinating people in need of care who need to be visited. No vaccine should be stored unnecessarily. “
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