California vaccinations could start Today

The vaccination campaign in the USA can begin: The first vaccination centers are to receive the corona vaccine from Biontech and Pfizer at the start of the week. The US Medicines Agency had previously granted emergency approval.

Corona Vaccination Could Start In the US on Monday

After the approval of the first corona vaccine in the US, vaccination could start there on Monday. The existing doses of the approved vaccine from German pharmaceutical company Biontech and its US partner Pfizer are currently being packaged, a White House representative said on Saturday. On Sunday, these cans would initially be delivered to more than 600 locations.

The first vaccine should be approved in the EU as early as December or at the latest in January. But then comes the next challenge: vaccinating broad sections of society as quickly as possible. Health Minister Spahn already fears distribution conflicts.

According to a first draft of the Ordinance on the right to vaccination of the Federal Ministry of Health, from which the German Medical Journal cites, risk groups and people who work in certain facilities or are treated or cared for there should first receive a vaccination. This probably means employees, patients and residents of inpatient and outpatient facilities, such as hospitals, old people's homes and doctors' offices.

Mass vaccination against the corona virus in Moscow

Dozens of clinics in the Russian capital are open to risk groups. Vaccination with the Sputnik V vaccine is voluntary and free of charge. Moscow is considered the epicenter of the corona epidemic in Russia.

The vaccine Sputnik V has been approved in Russia since August, although it is still in the final phase of clinical tests. In Moscow, health and education workers as well as social workers can now get vaccinated against the coronavirus in one of 70 centers.

Corona Vaccination Only With the Corresponding Law?

The first groups in Germany will soon be vaccinated against the corona virus. But there is another hurdle. Experts strongly recommend that a corresponding law be passed beforehand.

The federal government wants to regulate the vaccination against the corona virus only by regulation. But according to an elaboration of the Scientific Services of the Bundestag, this is the wrong way to go. In the paper that is available to the German Press Agency, it is somewhat cumbersome: The prevailing view that the prioritization of certain population groups for access to vaccines requires a formal law that regulates at least the essential criteria for the distribution of a scarce vaccine, is to be agreed.

What about Russian or Chinese vaccines?

There are four advanced vaccine projects in China and one in Russia - they are all vector vaccines. CanSino's Chinese vaccine candidate is based on an existing, so-called vaccine platform that is already being used against the Ebola virus.

The Russian vaccine called Sputnik-V was stated to be the first, available and safe vaccine. At this point in summer, however, phase III data were not yet available. This study is currently ongoing. It is contrary to common practice to make final statements about the effectiveness or safety without the data of thousands of test subjects.

When is there a vaccine?

 Every day there are reports about new vaccines against the corona virus SARS-CoV-2. But nobody has been admitted yet. In the long run, it boils down to multiple vaccines anyway.

The first vaccinations are allowed, they have been applied for elsewhere:

The UK granted Pfizer and Biotech’s mRNA vaccine emergency approval on December 2nd. An application for emergency approval has been submitted to the US FDA and the European Medicines Agency for conditional approval. The EU authority wants to decide on the vaccine on December 29th - this decision also applies to Germany.

Vaccine Receives Emergency Approval

 

When will a vaccine against the corona virus be available? Who will get it first and who will decide? Who finances the research, which benefits? The NDR is investigating these and other questions and is publishing its research on corona vaccine development here.

Clinical trial of a COVID-19 vaccine approved in Germany

The Paul Ehrlich Institute, Federal Institute for Vaccines and Biomedical Medicines, has approved another phase 1 clinical trial of a vaccine against COVID-19 in Germany. The current vaccine candidate is a so-called vector vaccine. The testing of vaccine candidates in humans is a significant step on the way to the approval of safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19.