Dispute over third syringe
Statutory health insurance doctors criticize Spahn: “It makes no sense to recommend booster vaccinations indiscriminately”
Speakers at the federal press conference on the upcoming corona measures: Stiko boss Thomas Mertens, Andreas Gassen, chairman of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, his deputy Stephan Hofmeister and Martin Scherer, President of the German Society for General Medicine and Family Medicine (from left to right)
© Bernd von Jutrczenka / DPA
Who should primarily benefit from the booster vaccination? A dispute is emerging between the statutory health insurance physicians and Health Minister Jens Spahn over this question. Doctors are in favor of clear, reliable framework conditions.
According to the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV), 15 million people in Germany should receive a booster vaccination against the coronavirus by the end of the year. Doctors could do up to 3.5 million vaccinations per week, said KBV boss Andreas Gassen on Tuesday. Over two million have already received the refresh. Gassen, as well as KBV Vice Stephan Hofmeister, expressed clear criticism of the initiative by the Executive Minister of Health Jens Spahn (CDU) to offer booster vaccinations for everyone.
Gassen called for clear framework conditions for the administration of the booster vaccinations by the resident doctors. The rules that apply should not be changed every few weeks. For example, it must be clarified how to deal with ordered vaccine doses that could not be administered in the practices.
Stiko recommendation is clear
The calls for comprehensive booster vaccinations had recently become louder due to the increasing corona numbers. Basically everyone has a right to it. For the time being, however, they are only recommended by the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) for people over 70 years of age, for patients whose immune system is suppressed by drugs (immunosuppressed patients) and people in old people’s and nursing homes.
The Stiko chairman Thomas Mertens made it clear that the first thing to do is to protect the people who need the vaccination most urgently. Healthy middle-aged people with basic immunization could assume, according to Mertens, that they still have sufficient protection against severe Covid 19 disease. Protection against infection diminishes over time, but protection against serious illness does not. Mertens emphasized that the gaping vaccination gaps in adults between the ages of 18 and 59 also need to be closed. The vaccination rates are inadequate here.
Spahn wants the booster for everyone
Health Minister Jens Spahn wants to give all citizens, regardless of their age, a booster vaccination against the corona virus. This vaccination should “basically be offered to all people who want it six months after completion of the first series of vaccinations”, according to a draft from Spahn’s Ministry for the upcoming health ministerial conference with the federal states.
The booster vaccinations could take place “within the framework of the available capacities and according to a medical assessment and decision,” says the draft. These vaccinations should primarily be offered to people who are particularly at risk – “whereby the focus is primarily on old people’s and nursing homes”.
Broadside against health minister
KBV boss Gassen said with a view to Spahn’s initiative: “Now to recommend booster vaccinations indiscriminately for everyone makes no sense.” He referred to the relatively high rate of people who have not yet been vaccinated. Gassen emphasized that the statutory health insurance physicians adhered to the Stiko recommendation “very strictly”.
The deputy KBV chairman Hofmeister said with a view to Spahn: “That doesn’t help us.” Doctors spend a lot of time “talking to insecure people”. In a situation in which priority must be given, it is advisable to proceed according to a “clear, targeted approach”.
If the citizens got a different message every two weeks, distrust and uncertainty would grow, said Hofmeister. The doctors in the practices would then have to laboriously repair this. “That costs time that we don’t have,” said the KBV vice-president.
Gassen sees Germany as being well equipped to get through the winter well in the corona pandemic. Compared to the situation a year ago, there is more protective equipment, more information about the virus and, above all, the possibility of vaccination. “We have tools in hand to get through the winter safely and safely.”