If German politics hadn’t dealt with itself so much in the past few weeks and had looked to Israel more often, the current situation might not be quite as dramatic. Israel has shown that a corona wave as high as a house can be broken if you give around 50 percent of the population a booster vaccination. A group of more than 20 renowned German scientists has just confirmed that the strategy should also work for Germany.
In theory, then, quick refreshments could very likely pave a way out of the crisis Germany is currently experiencing. The only thing that is lacking in practical implementation is that politicians, with incomparable short-sightedness, have decided to close a large part of the vaccination centers. The staff is gone, the equipment dismantled, in some places the whole center has been uninstalled because it was a container building with not a single screw in its place.
The medical practices, on the other hand, are fighting their way through the Covid and cold season. It is impossible that they can quickly manage a massive booster campaign at the same time. Even if the resident physicians were able to achieve the record performance of 3.4 million vaccinations per week that they achieved in the summer, it would take almost a quarter of a year before they vaccinated half of Germans. Christmas holidays are not even included.
It is to be hoped that at least some of the vaccination centers will be reactivated and that company doctors will be more involved in the refreshments so that the campaign can accelerate.
As long as there is nothing left than to appeal to people to be more farsighted than politics – and not to forget solidarity with those most at risk. It is understandable that many German citizens want to refresh their immune protection as soon as possible in view of the escalating numbers. From an epidemiological point of view, too, it is right and important that as many people as possible get the third syringe as quickly as possible. But it is also true that older and previously ill people benefit much more from the booster vaccination than younger people, because breakthrough infections lead to more severe courses in them. So as long as there are bottlenecks, the most vulnerable must once again have priority.