Germany Experiencing Severe Problems With Vaccine Rollout

By Tony Winterburn • Published: 10 Jan 2021 • 19:08

Catalan nurses struck off after giving vaccines to relatives

CREDIT: Pixabay

Germany Experiencing Severe Problems With Vaccine Rollout.

Germans are growing increasingly frustrated by the slow rollout of a COVID-19 vaccine its own scientists helped develop. The problems encountered are scarce vaccine supply, cumbersome paperwork, and a lack of healthcare staff and an aged and immobile population. All these variables are hampering efforts to get early doses of a vaccine made by U.S.-based Pfizer and German partner BioNTech into the arms of the people, said the German health ministry.

Germany has set up hundreds of vaccination centres in sports halls and concert arenas and has the infrastructure to administer up to 300,000 shots a day, Health Minister Jens Spahn said. However, the majority are standing empty, with most states now not planning to open centres until mid-January as they prioritise sending mobile teams into care homes instead,

The German Red Cross needs an extra 350 people to run its local vaccination campaign, said Nicole Fey, spokeswoman of the local district administration. “We’ve been able to recruit some, but there can never be enough,” she said.

In the first two weeks of its vaccination drive Germany has given 533,000 shots, just two-fifths of the 1.3 million doses received. Britain, by contrast, has just reached the 2 million mark. Israel, the world leader in terms of the share of population covered, is inoculating 150,000 people daily, with its universal and digitally-enabled healthcare system making it easier to schedule appointments.

Germany’s larger size and federal set-up are complicating operations, a problem also faced in the United States. Elsewhere in Europe, the decentralisation of Spain’s vaccination operation has exposed differences between regions and led to tensions within the central government.

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