Landshut’s Lord Mayor Alexander Putz currently stands for many local politicians in the Free State. “It doesn’t help to gloss over the situation,” he says. With the “fortunately falling number of infections”, the willingness to vaccinate has unfortunately also decreased significantly. After only around 300 interested parties registered in Landshut last week who wanted to benefit from the 2000 vaccination doses available for an initial vaccination, the city decided to launch the “Open Vaccination Days” campaign. All citizens older than 16 years could come to the vaccination center on Saturday and Sunday – even without prior registration. All they asked for was their identity card and vaccination pass – in return they received the coveted vaccine from Biontech / Pfizer or Moderna.
Thomas Schindler, the head of the Landshut vaccination center, was prepared for the fact that many would not miss out on such an offer. In the early Sunday afternoon, there was great disenchantment: “It’s going very slowly, just like the day before,” says Schindler. On Saturday there were just 160 people willing to vaccinate without an appointment, and so far only around 40. After all, there were many 16 to 18-year-olds among them, including high school students. Nevertheless, his conclusion is: “The mass that I had hoped for has failed to materialize.” What is to be done with the abandoned vaccine is still open.
Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU) is meanwhile issuing this slogan: It is important “to motivate even those who are still skeptical to vaccinate”. Actually, the conditions would currently be favorable for a good 85 percent of people over the age of 18 in the Free State to be able to receive full vaccination protection by autumn. “The federal government has promised us stable vaccine deliveries again for the coming weeks,” emphasizes Holetschek.
What is currently lacking, however, are those who want to be vaccinated. In order to be able to inject at least the cans currently being delivered, the district offices of Altötting, Berchtesgadener Land, Kitzingen, Kelheim, the Oberallgäu district and the cities of Kempten and Memmingen have announced special promotions. Starting next Wednesday, the Deggendorf district will also try new approaches. “We will release all vaccines in our two vaccination centers at the Volksfestwiese. Anyone can come to vaccination – without an appointment, without registration,” says Thomas Kindel, who, as the head of the regulatory office, is also responsible for the operation of the vaccination centers. If Kindel had announced this a few weeks ago, long queues would have formed at the Volksfestwiese, as many people were pushing to finally get their first vaccination.
Now, after a very manageable amount of time, the situation is suddenly very different. “We recently sent out thousands of invitations to vaccinate, but only a few hundred people confirmed the appointment,” said Kindel, describing the experiences of the past few days. He can only explain it this way: “The doctors in private practice have played their part with their vaccinations. In addition, the company doctors have also made a massive contribution.”
But if you ask around in Bavaria, you will also get this thesis presented: “In the Bayimco vaccination software, there are very, very many file corpses.” Therefore, you may no longer have a real overview of who is actually still willing to be vaccinated. The “card parts” are those who registered for the vaccination in the registration portal, which was activated on January 11th, but then ended up on hold due to a lack of vaccine and finally started looking for an alternative themselves. After the initial vaccination, quite a few apparently saw no need to think about registering with Bayimco any longer.
The Ministry of Health states that the “statutory data protection requirements” do not allow such persons to be identified or their number to be quantified. In order to reduce the number of multiple registrations, however, “regular accounts of registered people who have already been reminded of the possibility of making an appointment and have not logged into their account for a certain time will be deactivated”.
Office manager Thomas Kindel says with a shrug of the shoulders: “Here in the Deggendorf district we have launched several calls that everyone who has been vaccinated elsewhere should please withdraw from the Bayimco. As a result, he does not believe that the new offer in the vaccination centers will lead to a blow and sting.
Meanwhile, Lord Mayor Alexander Putz in Landshut is addressing flaming appeals to his citizens: “I warmly ask everyone to take advantage of the vaccination offer! Protect yourself and your fellow human beings!” Although around half of the population in his city has now received at least a first vaccination against the coronavirus, that is “far from being enough to be prepared for a new wave of infections threatening at the latest in autumn”.
In view of such fears, Health Minister Holetschek’s vaccination report is a little reminiscent of the whistling in the forest. More than a third of the citizens of Bavaria already have full immune protection. “This is an encouraging half-year record that we are building on,” he said recently. In addition, the corona infections in the old people’s and nursing homes have reached a low. “While at the height of the pandemic at the beginning of January 2021, more than 7,500 residents were infected with the corona virus at the same time, the number of those infected is now in the single digits,” the minister emphasized on Friday. The issue of booster vaccinations should now be resolved quickly with the federal government.
Meanwhile, Holetschek also wants to promote higher vaccination rates among the younger population. Special vaccination campaigns for graduating classes and pre-graduating classes are being considered. Bavaria’s general practitioners are also promoting a greater willingness to vaccinate, as Thomas Beier, chairman of the general practitioner association, emphasizes. After all, more younger patients are now signing up for a vaccination. And what was a nuisance a short time ago will soon be done again: The phase in which second vaccinations had to be given priority is now running out, says Beier. “The number of first vaccinations can now go up significantly again.” Only: “For that, the people have to get in touch.”