Anyone who has not previously wanted to be vaccinated against the corona virus will not do so now – the new protein vaccine Novavax will change almost nothing in the district. At least that is what the previous experiences in the Ebersberg vaccination center suggest. For almost two weeks now, anyone who wants to can be vaccinated with Novavax. Previously, the vaccine was reserved for those impacted by facility-based vaccination requirements. “Unfortunately, the demand is at a low level,” says Laura von Winterfeld, the administration manager of the vaccination center. In any case, there hasn’t been more going on than before in the vaccination center in the former savings bank building near the Ebersberg train station since the introduction of Novavax.
A maximum of five doses a day are currently vaccinated, and von Winterfeld does not only look at the Ebersberg vaccination center alone, but also counts the vaccinations by mobile teams and in the Poing branch office. As a result, vaccine has to be thrown away every night because there are ten doses in a bottle and once opened it has to be used on the same day. “It’s a shame, of course,” said the administration manager.
That’s why she won’t be reordering anything for now, there’s still enough left over from the first delivery, which included 220 bottles with ten cans each. After all, the substance will not expire so quickly, it has a shelf life of nine months. The batch that Ebersberg received can still be used until the end of July.
At the end of March, the Poinger branch of the vaccination center will close
Novavax has historically been heralded as the vaccine the doubters might trust. Because it has a different composition than the previously used mRNA vaccines from Biontech and Moderna. The Novavax product is a protein-based vaccine that introduces virus-like particles into the body so that it can specifically form antibodies against the virus, similar to so-called dead vaccines that have been in use for a very long time. mRNA technology, on the other hand, has been researched for many decades; the vaccines against corona are the first to be actually used. mRNA vaccines are designed to provide the body with the code to produce a non-infectious viral spike protein.
But hopes that Novavax will now drive up the vaccination rate are apparently in vain. According to Laura von Winterfeld, those who now come to the vaccination center to get a Novavax injection do not need much advice, nor do most of them talk about the reasons why they have only now decided to have the vaccination. Fear of the unknown and lack of confidence in mRNA vaccines are some of the reasons given, she says.
So it remains rather quiet in the Ebersberg vaccination center, because the fourth vaccination dose, which is currently recommended for over 70-year-olds, residents and those cared for in care facilities and clinics, as well as people with a weakened immune system, has so far hardly been accepted. In Ebersberg, the vaccination center will therefore no longer be open on Sundays from April. The Poinger branch closes its doors completely at the end of March.