Germany’s general practitioners would like to see a combined vaccine against corona and flu in the “foreseeable future”. At the same time, they are once again calling for individual doses of the corona vaccine so that “spontaneous vaccination” can be done.
Germany’s family doctors are campaigning for double vaccinations against corona and flu from one syringe. “We very much hope that the combination vaccine will be available in the foreseeable future,” said the federal chairman of the general practitioners’ association, Markus Beier, to the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”. The recommendations of the Standing Vaccination Commission as to who should be vaccinated and when are “pretty much identical” for corona and flu, said Beier. “We would really like to see a combination vaccine in practices.”
The head of the association also put pressure on politicians and manufacturers to ensure single doses for corona vaccinations. “We expect that this will finally happen so that we can vaccinate spontaneously,” Beier continued to tell the newspaper. The corona vaccine is still only available in packs of six. So six vaccinations would have to be organized for each day, or the vaccine would have to be thrown away. “We have relatively little understanding as to why it was not possible to switch to single doses for the upcoming winter,” said Beier. “It’s really about time.”
Warning of tense situations in doctor’s offices
The situation in the practices will be “very, very tense” again in the winter months, said the head of the family doctor. There will be “very high numbers of infections”, not only but also with the coronavirus. Therefore, patients would have to be prepared for queues in the cold season and the telephone lines would also often be busy.
The The Standing Vaccination Commission (STIKO) recommends an annual vaccination for pregnant women, people over 60, medical staff, people who have a lot of contact with other people, or people with underlying illnesses, including children. A flu vaccination could also be useful for healthy children and young people, as they have a lot of contact with others in daycare and school, it was said. The STIKO also recommends a booster vaccination against the coronavirus for people aged 60 and over or with certain previous illnesses as well as for medical and nursing staff. The annual booster vaccination should take place at least twelve months after the last vaccination or infection with the coronavirus.