Slow off the blocks in the race to immunize its citizens against COVID-19, Germany faces an unfamiliar problem: a glut of vaccines and not enough arms to inject them into.
Like other countries in the European Union, its national vaccine campaign lags far behind that of Israel, Britain and the United States. Now there are growing calls in this country of 83 million to ditch the rulebook, or at least rewrite it a bit, reports AP from Berlin.
Germans watched with morbid fascination in January as Britain trained an army of volunteers to deliver coronavirus shots, then marveled at the fact that the UK — hit far worse by the pandemic than Germany — managed to vaccinate more than half a million people on some days.
The US drive-thru inoculation centers and the COVID-19 shots given out in American grocery store pharmacies drew bafflement in Germany — that is, until the country’s own plans for orderly vaccine appointments at specialized centers were overwhelmed by the demand.
“Anglo-Saxon countries had a much more pragmatic approach,” said Hans-Martin von Gaudecker, a professor of economics at the University of Bonn. “What normally makes German bureaucracy stolid and reliable becomes an obstacle in a crisis and costs lives.”
The European Medicines Agency approved the AstraZeneca vaccine for all age groups, but several EU nations, including Germany, imposed tighter age limits.
With its stockpile of AstraZeneca vaccine doses set to top 2 million this week, Germany is looking to make more people eligible for the shots that have so far been restricted to a fraction of the population: people in the top priority group who are under 65.
France changed tactics earlier this week, allowing some people over 65 to get the AstraZeneca vaccine after initially restricting its use to younger people due to limited data. Health Minister Olivier Veran said the shot would soon also be available to people over 50 with health problems that make them vulnerable to COVID-19 complications.
France, which at over 87,000 dead has among the highest coronavirus tolls in Europe, had used less than a quarter of the 1.1 million AstraZeneca vaccines it has received as of Friday.
The age restrictions have compounded problems caused by initial delivery delays and a widespread reticence toward the vaccine, fueled by media reports that it is less effective than rival shots.
