第四波“新冠”疫情袭来,德国民众的生命安全遭受严重威胁,为抵御这场危机,德国正在寻求从受影响较小的国家那里获得帮助。
德国的新任卫生部部长卡尔·劳特巴赫表示,该国将向较为贫穷的东部欧盟邻国寻求帮助。根据欧盟的联合采购计划,分配给上述东欧国家的新冠疫苗剂量明显过剩。
12月15日晚上接受德国ZDF电视台采访时,劳特巴赫表示:“作为一项紧急措施,我目前正在设法从东欧国家购买疫苗。”
他说:“上述东欧国家目前有一些(用不上的疫苗)储备,也有一些已经分给他们但还没有运过去。为确保我们能够为德国民众持续进行疫苗接种,我目前正在设法求购这些疫苗。”
目前,德国仅有不到70%的人口接种了新冠疫苗,相较其他西欧国家,该国的疫苗接种进度处于落后位置,而这在很大程度上是由于前东德地区的德国民众对新冠疫苗持怀疑态度。根据欧洲疾病预防控制中心(European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control)的数据,波兰、匈牙利和斯洛伐克等东欧欧盟成员国在鼓励本国公民接种新冠疫苗方面也是收效甚微。
12月14日,劳特巴赫承认德国存在严重的疫苗短缺问题,已经到了堪称危险的境地,此后,德国便开始设法获得更多的疫苗供应。作为一个向来对自己高效的管理和组织能力感到自豪的富裕工业化国家,这一事件已经促使其反躬自省。
在接受德国世界频道(Welt)新闻频道采访时,德国国家法定健康保险医师协会(National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians)的负责人对政府未能订购足量新冠疫苗发出了猛烈抨击。该国的健康维护组织(HMO)的医师代表安德烈亚斯·加森称:“对于疫苗相关活动而言,这是一个极其糟糕的信号。”
供应减少
虽然目前已经有四种新冠疫苗获得欧洲药品管理局(European Medicines Agency)的使用批准,但欧盟采购的主要是两种mRNA疫苗:德国BioNTech公司生产的Comirnaty和美国Moderna公司生产的Spikevax。(在全球大多数市场,Comirnaty由辉瑞授权销售。)
根据劳特巴赫提供的数据,未来三周,德国仅可以提供大约300万剂Comirnaty。Moderna生产的Spikevax疫苗的供应量也将从明年1月开始下降到每周150万支,这种局面也促使劳特巴赫警告称,到明年第一季度,德国将无法以当前这么快的速度继续为其民众接种新冠疫苗。
12月16日,德国的罗伯特·科赫研究所(Robert Koch Institute)报告称,在此前24小时内,该国共接种了150万剂新冠疫苗,创下了新的纪录。
更糟糕的是,德国还不建议30岁以下的民众接种Spikevax。该国的疫苗接种委员会(STIKO)根据年轻族群接种该疫苗后罹患心肌炎和心包炎(两种心肌炎症)的风险增加情况做出了这个颇具争议的判断。
强制疫苗接种即将开始
对德国来说,新冠疫苗缺口出现的时机可谓糟糕至极。由于传播力极强的奥密克戎变种毒株预计将会侵袭整个欧洲,该国近期的感染人数或将出现激增。更糟糕的是,一旦议会通过强制接种疫苗的法律,将会促使更多的德国人接种新冠疫苗。
“这种局面颇具戏剧性。”德国道德委员会(German Ethics Council)的主席阿莱娜·布依科斯在接受ZDF采访时表示。布依科斯的任务是在本月底之前就上述强制法令的利弊向立法者提供建议。“我只能希望卡尔·劳特巴赫能够迅速得到大量疫苗。”她补充说。
对劳特巴赫来说,第四波疫情造成的死亡人数已经让德国面上无光。在此轮疫情开始之时,德国正处于看守政府的领导之下。
劳特巴赫说:“在前三波疫情中,德国的死亡率比其他国家都低,我很骄傲我们当时做对了很多事情。现在这些成绩都已经成为过去式。事实上,在某些情况下,德国的死亡率已经超过了我们过去与之比较的那些国家,这一变化令人触目惊心。”(财富中文网)
译者:梁宇
审校:夏林
第四波“新冠”疫情袭来,德国民众的生命安全遭受严重威胁,为抵御这场危机,德国正在寻求从受影响较小的国家那里获得帮助。
德国的新任卫生部部长卡尔·劳特巴赫表示,该国将向较为贫穷的东部欧盟邻国寻求帮助。根据欧盟的联合采购计划,分配给上述东欧国家的新冠疫苗剂量明显过剩。
12月15日晚上接受德国ZDF电视台采访时,劳特巴赫表示:“作为一项紧急措施,我目前正在设法从东欧国家购买疫苗。”
他说:“上述东欧国家目前有一些(用不上的疫苗)储备,也有一些已经分给他们但还没有运过去。为确保我们能够为德国民众持续进行疫苗接种,我目前正在设法求购这些疫苗。”
目前,德国仅有不到70%的人口接种了新冠疫苗,相较其他西欧国家,该国的疫苗接种进度处于落后位置,而这在很大程度上是由于前东德地区的德国民众对新冠疫苗持怀疑态度。根据欧洲疾病预防控制中心(European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control)的数据,波兰、匈牙利和斯洛伐克等东欧欧盟成员国在鼓励本国公民接种新冠疫苗方面也是收效甚微。
12月14日,劳特巴赫承认德国存在严重的疫苗短缺问题,已经到了堪称危险的境地,此后,德国便开始设法获得更多的疫苗供应。作为一个向来对自己高效的管理和组织能力感到自豪的富裕工业化国家,这一事件已经促使其反躬自省。
在接受德国世界频道(Welt)新闻频道采访时,德国国家法定健康保险医师协会(National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians)的负责人对政府未能订购足量新冠疫苗发出了猛烈抨击。该国的健康维护组织(HMO)的医师代表安德烈亚斯·加森称:“对于疫苗相关活动而言,这是一个极其糟糕的信号。”
供应减少
虽然目前已经有四种新冠疫苗获得欧洲药品管理局(European Medicines Agency)的使用批准,但欧盟采购的主要是两种mRNA疫苗:德国BioNTech公司生产的Comirnaty和美国Moderna公司生产的Spikevax。(在全球大多数市场,Comirnaty由辉瑞授权销售。)
根据劳特巴赫提供的数据,未来三周,德国仅可以提供大约300万剂Comirnaty。Moderna生产的Spikevax疫苗的供应量也将从明年1月开始下降到每周150万支,这种局面也促使劳特巴赫警告称,到明年第一季度,德国将无法以当前这么快的速度继续为其民众接种新冠疫苗。
12月16日,德国的罗伯特·科赫研究所(Robert Koch Institute)报告称,在此前24小时内,该国共接种了150万剂新冠疫苗,创下了新的纪录。
更糟糕的是,德国还不建议30岁以下的民众接种Spikevax。该国的疫苗接种委员会(STIKO)根据年轻族群接种该疫苗后罹患心肌炎和心包炎(两种心肌炎症)的风险增加情况做出了这个颇具争议的判断。
强制疫苗接种即将开始
对德国来说,新冠疫苗缺口出现的时机可谓糟糕至极。由于传播力极强的奥密克戎变种毒株预计将会侵袭整个欧洲,该国近期的感染人数或将出现激增。更糟糕的是,一旦议会通过强制接种疫苗的法律,将会促使更多的德国人接种新冠疫苗。
“这种局面颇具戏剧性。”德国道德委员会(German Ethics Council)的主席阿莱娜·布依科斯在接受ZDF采访时表示。布依科斯的任务是在本月底之前就上述强制法令的利弊向立法者提供建议。“我只能希望卡尔·劳特巴赫能够迅速得到大量疫苗。”她补充说。
对劳特巴赫来说,第四波疫情造成的死亡人数已经让德国面上无光。在此轮疫情开始之时,德国正处于看守政府的领导之下。
劳特巴赫说:“在前三波疫情中,德国的死亡率比其他国家都低,我很骄傲我们当时做对了很多事情。现在这些成绩都已经成为过去式。事实上,在某些情况下,德国的死亡率已经超过了我们过去与之比较的那些国家,这一变化令人触目惊心。”(财富中文网)
译者:梁宇
审校:夏林
In its desperate quest to ward off a deadly fourth wave of COVID-19, Germany is now looking to those less fortunate for help.
New health minister Karl Lauterbach said the country would turn to poorer EU neighbors to its east, which enjoy an apparent surplus of doses allocated to them under the bloc’s joint purchasing scheme.
“As an emergency measure, I’m now trying to buy vaccines from Eastern Europe,” he told German public broadcaster ZDF on December 15 evening.
“There are supplies that these countries either already have or to which they are entitled but cannot use, and I’m trying to procure them so that we can continue inoculating people without interruption,” he said.
Owing largely to vaccine skepticism in its former Communist eastern half, Germany is a laggard among Western European nations, with just below 70% of the population fully vaccinated. Eastern EU member states like Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia have proved even less successful in motivating their citizens to get vaccinated, according to data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
Germany’s scramble for vaccine doses comes after Lauterbach’s admission on December 14 that authorities are running dangerously low on vaccines. This has prompted soul searching in a wealthy industrialized country that takes pride in its efficient management and organizational prowess.
Speaking to the Welt news channel, the head of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians blasted the government’s failure to order enough supply. “It’s an extremely poor signal for the vaccine campaign,” said Andreas Gassen, who represents the country’s HMO doctors.
Dwindling supplies
While four vaccines are currently approved for use by the European Medicines Agency, the EU has focused mainly on purchasing the two mRNA-based vaccines: Comirnaty, from Germany’s own BioNTech, and Spikevax, from U.S.-based Moderna. (Comirnaty is licensed for sale by Pfizer in most global markets.)
By Lauterbach’s figures, Germany will be able to distribute only about 3 million doses of Comirnaty over the next three weeks. The supply of Moderna’s Spikevax is also set to drop, to 1.5 million per week starting in January, prompting the health minister to warn there is not enough to continue vaccinating Germans at the current high pace in the first quarter.
On Thursday, Germany’s Robert Koch Institute reported that 1.5 million doses were administered over the previous 24-hour period, a new record.
To add to Lauterbach’s problems, Spikevax is not recommended for people under 30 in Germany. The country’s standing commission on vaccines, or “STIKO,” based this controversial judgment on an increased risk of myocarditis and pericarditis, two types of heart muscle inflammation, in younger people who received the vaccine.
Mandate coming
The shortfall comes at the worst possible time for Germany. The country will likely see cases spiking in the near term thanks to the expected spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant throughout Europe. Worse, Germans will soon need to prove they are inoculated, once parliament is expected to pass laws making it compulsory.
“It’s a dramatic situation,” Alena Buyx, the head of the German Ethics Council, told ZDF. Buyx is tasked with providing a recommendation over the pros and cons of such a mandate to legislators by the end of this month. “I can only hope that Karl Lauterbach succeeds in acquiring very quickly a very large number of doses,” she added.
For Lauterbach, the death toll from Germany’s fourth COVID wave has proved a humiliation for the country, which was operating under a caretaker government when the wave began.
“In the first three waves we had a mortality rate here in Germany that was lower than other countries, and I was very proud that we got a lot of things right,” Lauterbach said. “That’s all gone now. Indeed in some cases it’s higher than those with whom we always compared ourselves, and that is appalling.”