We can get most Germans vaccinated by the end of the summer: founder of BioNTech

BERLIN (Reuters) – The founder of BioNTech, partnering with Pfizer to make one of the first coronavirus vaccines to be approved for use, is optimistic the virus will be under control in most European countries by the end of the summer despite a failed vaccine come out.

In Germany, owners of closed shops and potential vacationers are increasingly reluctant about COVID-19 restrictions. Some 20,000 people demonstrated against the lockdown in the central city of Kassel on Saturday.

Governments in the European Union have come under fire for being slow to start their vaccination campaigns, with supply hiccups leaving the bloc far behind countries such as Israel, Britain and the United States.

But BioNTech founder Ugur Sahin said he was optimistic the problems would prove temporary, adding that it was possible to ensure that 70% of Germans were vaccinated by the end of September. , when he said the virus would pose little problem.

“In many European countries and in the United States, we probably won’t need a lockdown by the end of the summer,” he told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. “There will be epidemics, but there will be background noise. There will be changes, but they will not scare us.

Almost 9% of the German population had received at least one injection of the vaccine on Saturday. Meanwhile, Britain has passed the midpoint with 50% of adults receiving at least one dose.

In Germany, slow vaccine rollout and lingering restrictions are weighing heavily on the fortunes of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives, who slide in polls in an election year even as rising COVID-19 cases look set forcing the authorities to curb attempts to gradually reopen the economy.

The incidence is more than 100 cases per 100,000 inhabitants over a week – the threshold above which authorities say they must impose stricter distancing rules to prevent the health system from being overloaded.

“Many are simply disappointed,” Bavarian Conservative Prime Minister Markus Soeder, a candidate who is likely to succeed Merkel in national elections, told Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper.

“A false move now risks turning this third wave (of the virus) into a permanent wave,” he said ahead of a meeting of national and regional leaders on Monday where they are expected to discuss the next step in measures against coronaviruses.

“We have a tool: the emergency brake. It must be applied strictly everywhere in Germany, ”said Soeder, raising the possibility of ending the easing of restrictions.