Exclusive
Status: 08/17/2021 11:10 a.m.
For the first time, nationwide figures on vaccine stocks in medical practices are available. According to information from Report Mainz: Up to 3.2 million vaccine doses could expire in the fall.
According to a survey by the Central Institute for Statutory Health Insurance in Germany, the ARD political magazine Report Mainz is available, up to 3.2 million COVID-19 vaccine doses from doctors’ offices alone could expire in the fall.
This particularly affects 1.5 million cans from AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson. But even with the 1.7 million doses of BioNTech currently stored in practices, it is not certain whether they will still be inoculated. Because medical practices, unlike vaccination centers, cannot return unused, durable vaccination doses directly to the federal government. So far, the unused doses have not been centrally recorded by doctors.
“Incredible and irresponsible” – the general practitioner Dr. Björn Parey in an interview with the ARD politics magazine. Especially in light of the fact that vaccines are desperately being sought in other countries around the world, this is a catastrophe, said the board member of the Hamburg General Practitioner Association. The destruction of up to 3.2 million vaccine doses is unimaginable, not only from a solidarity perspective. “For us in Germany, too, it is important to fight the pandemic worldwide, because otherwise the virus will be carried back into the country again and again.”
In his practice alone, more than 50 AstraZeneca vaccine doses, which expire at the end of October, are left lying around. He tried to hand over the cans for further use. But the Hamburg vaccination center refused. According to the existing regulations, the vaccination center does not have to accept the doses. “This vaccine then goes to the trash,” criticized Dr. Bjorn Parey.
The Ministry of Health of North Rhine-Westphalia also confirmed on request from Report Mainz: “No acceptance can be made in the vaccination centers for the AstraZeneca vaccine, as it is hardly used here at the moment.” Even cans that can be kept for months remain unused due to bureaucratic hurdles. And that although they are desperately needed in developing countries and there would also be buyers for them.
According to a statement by Dr. Björn Parey turned ashore several times and pointed out the impending expiry of the AstraZeneca vaccine. He criticizes: “Action should have been taken here earlier.” A reaction from the Hamburg Ministry of Health is still pending.
Vaccines from vaccination centers can be returned to the federal government via the federal states, but such a regulation does not yet exist for medical practices. The Federal Ministry of Health writes Report Mainz on this: “There are currently no plans to return excess COVID-19 vaccines from doctors’ offices to the central warehouse of the federal government.”
No reaction from Berlin
The Federal Ministry of Health has not yet responded to the specific survey results. The results are based on the nationwide delivery figures collected by the KBV for all medical practices on August 10, 2021 and the nationwide vaccination numbers from the medical practices on August 15, 2021, as well as on the answers to the Zi survey at medical practices.