Fight against the Delta variant: “Second vaccination should be brought forward”

The number of new corona infections is still on the decline – but concerns about the effects of the particularly aggressive Delta variant after the summer are increasing. Opposition politicians are now calling for a second vaccination to be preferred.

The infection rate in Germany is currently at a low level – the seven-day incidences are now single-digit in each individual federal state. Nationwide, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the value continues to drop to 5.7 from 5.9 the previous day. The incidence indicates how many people per 100,000 population have contracted the coronavirus in the past seven days. The RKI reports 538 new positive tests. That is 304 fewer than on Sunday a week ago, when 842 new infections were reported.

Eight other people died related to the virus. This increases the number of reported deaths within 24 hours to 90,754.A total of more than 3.7 million corona tests have so far been positive in Germany.

Worry about the delta variant

However, the delta variant of the coronavirus, which is considered particularly contagious, is now spreading in many countries. In Great Britain and Israel, for example, the number of new infections is rising again, despite an advanced vaccination campaign. In order to keep the numbers in Germany low, health experts from the opposition are now calling for vaccination intervals to be shortened where possible. According to current knowledge, the first vaccination hardly helps against the mutant.

For mRNA vaccines (BioNTech / Pfizer and Moderna), the second vaccination against the coronavirus should “urgently be brought forward” and take place after three weeks, said Green health expert Janosch Dahmen of “Welt am Sonntag”. There are “hard data” that this is very effective against the delta variant. An earlier second vaccination with the AstraZeneca vaccine was not yet available.

“STIKO should revise their recommendation”

The FDP chairman in the health committee, Andrew Ullmann, said: “The Standing Vaccination Commission should revise its recommendation on vaccination intervals and bring forward the timing of the second vaccination.” The STIKO has so far recommended longer intervals between the two vaccinations than possible. There are reasons for this: At AstraZeneca, for example, the effectiveness increases with a longer distance. In addition, the shortage of vaccines spoke in favor of supplying as many people as possible first.

At AstraZeneca, the previous advice from the panel of experts has been to allow twelve weeks to elapse between the first and second dose. For the mRNA vaccines, the recommended interval is six weeks. According to the approval, faster vaccination series would be possible: two BioNTech syringes every three weeks, with Moderna and AstraZeneca every four weeks.