Status: 01.09.2021 10:53 a.m.
In Magdeburg there is a “vaccination tram”, elsewhere there is a bratwurst after the spade: But even these campaigns do little to change the rather poor vaccination quota in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. Why is that?
Nowhere else in Germany are the incidence values currently as low as in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. You have to say: no matter how low. Because the school holidays only end here in the next few days. And when it comes to vaccinating against Covid-19, the three countries are lagging behind. Together with Brandenburg, they have been in last place in Germany in terms of vaccination rates for weeks.
The “vaccine turbo”, which Saxony-Anhalt’s state government wanted to insert in July, apparently did not ignite. At the end of August, just over 17,000 people were vaccinated for the first time each week, pretty much as many as at the end of July. In the spring it was almost 100,000. But the third corona wave subsided in the summer, and several districts did not report a single case for days. The willingness to vaccinate decreased. An effect that could be observed worldwide.
The trend reversal has also been a long time coming in Thuringia and Saxony. In the three countries, for example, between 52 percent and 57 percent of people are fully vaccinated, in Schleswig-Holstein it is already more than 64 percent.
This is difficult to explain at first glance. Measured relative to the population, more people died in connection with Covid-19 in Saxony, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt than in any other federal state. Of the slightly more than a dozen districts in Germany in which a particularly large number of people died during the second and third corona waves in relation to the number of inhabitants, almost all are here.
Of these, only the Saxon Vogtlandkreis has an above-average vaccination rate. It is here at 64 percent. The district administration refers to a pilot project. At the end of winter, when the Saxon crematoria reached their border, the Free State of Saxony provided additional vaccination vehicles and centers here. Shortly afterwards, the prioritization of the vaccination groups was lifted. At the same time, an awareness campaign was carried out with posters and advertisements.
A doctor vaccinates a football fan before a game – like here in Magdeburg, there were special vaccination campaigns in many places.
Image: dpa
Structural problems
It didn’t exist anywhere else. In addition to delays with vaccine deliveries, there were also structural problems. According to surveys by the Saxon Ministry of Social Affairs, only two out of three practices that could vaccinate also offer the vaccination. According to a study by the Berlin Humboldt University, it is the general practitioners who play a decisive role in the willingness of older people to vaccinate.
On top of that, some of the vaccination centers in Saxony are difficult to reach by public transport, as a member of the local vaccination commission did MDR admitted. And the company doctors, especially in Thuringia and Saxony, use far fewer injections than the national average. They cannot compensate for the declining influx in the vaccination centers since July.
In Aue-Bad Schlema (Saxony), a young woman receives a bratwurst in the Kulturhaus after her vaccination against the coronavirus. There were similar actions in other places in the region.
Image: dpa
“Vaccination Tram” and free sausages
In many places the municipalities are trying to counteract this in other ways: In Magdeburg, people were able to get vaccinated on the sidelines of a third division game by the local football club, and a “vaccination tram” has been running through the city since last weekend. In Sonneberg, in the Franconian south of Thuringia, there were free sausages for syringes. Häme broke into the small town on social media, but: The campaign was a success. The need for vaccinations doubled at times.
The fact that the willingness to vaccinate remains relatively restrained in the region is often explained by the protests against the corona measures. Some of them are very radical here. The right-wing extremist party “Free Saxony”, founded during the pandemic, has only just ensured that the Saxon SPD social minister Petra Köpping had to cancel an election due to the threat situation. The sociologist Matthias Quent, who works in Jena and Magdeburg, warned in November that there was “a dangerous atmosphere” in some municipalities.
However, there was no conflagration. In many places, those responsible are tirelessly promoting vaccinations. But not all of them are fully involved. Some may also overestimate the effects of the last corona wave. After all, each past wave has also produced tens of thousands of recovered people who are now considered immune for the time being.
Herd immunity achieved?
The district administrator of the Bautzen district turned to the Federal Chancellor in mid-August. You should take back the corona measures. One of the politicians’ arguments: the so-called herd immunity is likely to have been achieved in view of the many vaccinations and “including those who have recovered so far”.
This cannot be proven with official figures. If you add up vaccinated and convalescent people in the Bautzen district, you get there about half of all residents. The target for herd immunity is generally 70 percent. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), a pure vaccination quota of 85 to 90 percent is now required due to new variants.
Convinced vaccination skeptics in Saxony
The state governments have committed themselves to this goal. However, the RKI does not currently assume that Germany will be able to achieve herd immunity before autumn. In Saxony, this is unlikely to be feasible, especially because of convinced vaccine skeptics. According to a study by the TU Dresden, around every fifth Saxon must be considered vaccine-skeptical. Twelve percent even completely ruled out vaccination.
In the Erzgebirgskreis, the districts of Bautzen and Görlitz, more than one in four is considered a vaccine skeptic. They are more often found among the under-50s, workers and self-employed, low-wage earners and childless people – and among AfD supporters. Their politicians repeatedly questioned the sense of the vaccinations.
Maik Herold, co-author of the study, speaks of a “gray area” in interviews. He also suspects a historical rejection of external interventions behind people’s attitudes. The Federal Government’s Eastern Commissioner, Marco Wanderwitz, claims to have perceived a “basic excitement” about the Corona issue. The CDU politician comes from the Ore Mountains.
The Vogtlandkreis shows again that there is another way: According to the Dresden study, vaccination skepticism is significantly lower here, probably also due to the awareness campaign in the district. Demographically there is little difference from the Erzgebirgskreis right next door. The next few weeks will show whether the quotas achieved so far can prevent a fourth wave.