Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU) was able to observe from close quarters which problem is currently emerging. In Memmingen, Holetschek’s hometown, the vaccination center called for a special campaign last weekend. 1800 vaccinations, around the clock, without an appointment. Stop by spontaneously, pick up spades, done. The action should have run from Friday evening to Sunday morning. But on Saturday evening, after 180 vaccinations, it was over. In the absence of demand. 1620 vaccine doses remained. “We come into the area where the willingness to vaccinate is decreasing,” says Holetschek.
“We feel a certain tiredness when vaccinating with one or the other,” said Markus Söder (CSU) when he stood next to Holetschek on Monday. The Prime Minister and the Minister of Health have invited to the press conference after the second Bavarian Vaccination Summit with representatives of the vaccination centers, doctors and pharmacies. How can the vaccination rate be accelerated? How to keep the willingness to vaccinate high? Those were the central questions at the summit. But before it comes to the solutions, Söder first formulates goals. By the summer holidays, 70 percent of the people in Bavaria should have received the first injection and 50 percent the second. To classify: On Monday, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported almost 51 percent first vaccinations and a good 35 percent second vaccinations for the Free State. “We now have to vaccinate a lot before summer,” says Söder.
Behind Söders haste is the concern that there could be “a dent” in the vaccination numbers as soon as the summer holidays start in Bavaria. Then a lot of people will go on vacation, including doctors, of course. In order to increase the vaccination rate until the holidays, Söder demands more vaccine from the federal government. He complains about the “fairness of distribution” and says that the Free State is getting fewer doses than it is entitled to. However, it is only down to the federal government that the vaccination rate is not as high as it could be. The gap between delivered and actually inoculated cans is higher in Bavaria than in most other federal states. According to Söder, around 13 percent of all cans remain in Bavaria. When it comes to the rate of second vaccinations, Bavaria is in the midfield, and when it comes to first vaccinations, it even ranks next to last in the country table.
In a large country, vaccination logistics are more complicated than “in Hamburg or Bremen”, says Söder. But he also says that Bavaria is “not satisfied” with a place in the back field of the vaccination rankings. The statistics “we don’t like them and they just have to be improved”. In order for this to be successful, pharmacies, general practitioners and company doctors should report leftover doses to the vaccination centers in the future. It is important that there is more flexibility in the vaccinations so that there is no vaccine left, says Söder. The Ministry of Health must be given “more hinge function” and “more freedom” in coordinating the vaccine. This can be seen as a clear mandate to Minister Holetschek.
Söder and Holetschek want to trigger a further boost in the vaccination rate by releasing the prioritization in the Bavarian vaccination centers this week. So far, only general practitioners and specialists have been allowed to vaccinate their patients regardless of the vaccination sequence. There are currently 275,000 people on the waiting list who belong to the prioritized groups, “not very many”, says Söder, which is why now is the right time to end the prioritization. However, the state government still does not want to completely dissolve the vaccination centers. This would be “a big mistake,” says Söder. The centers are “ideally suited to give booster vaccinations there”.
In order to be able to vaccinate more quickly, Söder would also like the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) to reconsider its only limited recommendation for children and adolescents between twelve and 17 years of age. For Bavaria, Söder again promised special vaccination offers for students and announced that vaccinations for high school students will start this week. Söder also demands a clear statement from the federal government as to the extent to which cross-vaccinations are possible – i.e. first and second vaccinations with different vaccines.
With cross vaccinations, Söder expects shorter intervals between the first and second syringes. With the vaccine from Astra Zeneca in particular, the interval between vaccinations is relatively high at twelve weeks – which is why Söder advocates shortening it to eight or even six weeks. “That also increases the willingness for Astra Zeneca in general,” he says of the British-Swedish vaccine, which is considered relatively unpopular. The vaccine from Astra Zeneca was also offered at the vaccination campaign in Memmingen – so it must not have been due to vaccination fatigue that the matter flopped. In a similar campaign at the end of May, 1,800 doses of vaccine were offered by Johnson & Johnson. The rush should have been great.
After the vaccination summit, Söder then renewed the demand that Minister Holetschek had made at the weekend: The federal government must examine how people returning from vacation can be checked for vaccination cards and negative tests. What, according to Söder, will not exist: a Bavarian special route. “I don’t think it is practicable for us to set up rows of test stations again,” which, as everyone knows, ended in chaos last year. It should go better with vaccination. The targeted 70 percent first and 50 percent second vaccinations think “the Ministry of Health is realistic. And after the experiences of last year, I always first ask what is considered realistic,” says Söder.