Germany is starting to run out of Biontech vaccine, according to Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD).
Germany will order 90 million doses of Biontech’s €2.2 billion vaccine
“We can deliver 1.2 million doses of Biontech for the whole of Germany next week, 800,000 doses a week later, and then another 1.2 million doses,” – Lauterbach said Wednesday evening on the ZDF program “Markus Lanz – Das Jahr 2021.” The minister stressed that this is far less than the amount that doctors need.
Lauterbach explained: “These are already reserves. Because the campaign has to go as well as it can.” On Tuesday evening, Lauterbach had already spoken in ARD about a “vaccine shortage” in the first quarter of 2022. In response, the new federal government now wants to buy more than 90 million vaccines from Biontech at a cost of 2.2 billion euros.
Lauterbach wants to buy back vaccines from Eastern European countries
The health minister further said, “I am now trying to buy back vaccines from Eastern European countries as an emergency. Some of the vaccine delivered there could not be vaccinated. There are still sufficient quantities of Moderna vaccine available. The problem is that those quantities will drop sharply starting in January. “What we have secured now is 1.5 million doses a week. And that’s why I have to do something,” – Lauterbach said.
The SPD politician stressed that the information about vaccine shortages was not an accusation against predecessor Jens Spahn (CDU). There were also enough vaccines throughout the year – but not for a very rapid campaign for booster vaccinations.
source: www.tagesspiegel.de