German health officials are calling for the expansion of the COVID vaccine booster program to tackle yet another wave of infection as they admit the shot is only effective in preventing one from catching the virus for a very limited time.
Uwe Janssens, secretary general of the German Society of Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine (DGIIN) and a practicing physician, told German news agency RND last week that the number of breakthrough infections in fully vaccinated people is extremely alarming.
Janssens said, “Almost 44% of patients over 60 currently admitted to intensive care units with COVID-19 are vaccine breakthrough cases,” and said the number is increasing “by leaps and bounds.”
The doctor complained that the intensive care unit at his clinic in Eschweiler is full both with COVID and non-COVID patients. If the progression of COVID infections continues, Janssens believes the clinic would soon have to withdraw from regular operations and postpone surgeries, as has happened in other hospitals across the country.
To avoid that, Janssens insists on additional medical measures. Germany has employed a so-called 2G Rule (Geimpfte und Genesene — vaccinated and recovered) that allows fully vaccinated or COVID-recovered Germans to enter public venues and participate in various social activities. Some of the states allow for the “3G” rule, which includes people who have a negative COVID test.
Janssens, however, believes that “Given the vaccine breakthroughs, 2G is not enough,” and calls on all Germans, especially those with known COVID co-morbidities, to get their booster shots so as not to “end up in the intensive care unit with a breakthrough infection.”
“We need 2G plus in high-risk areas such as hospitals and nursing homes. The vaccinated and recovered hospital staff must also be tested there. To protect the patients entrusted to them,” the doctor added.
Janssens also harshly criticized Germany’s Standing Committee on Vaccination (STIKO) for recommending a third dose primarily for people over 70 years of age in October. He called such a limited recommendation a “big mistake,” and called on a “more flexible” booster shot campaign to include other populations.
Besides those older than 70, STIKO recommended people with a weakened immune system, medical staff, and people who’ve had the single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to get a COVID booster shot. In all cases, the additional dose should be given at least six months after the last dose.
Karl Lauterbach, a German scientist and a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), underlined that “these breakthrough cases should not be underestimated” while also saying that “the really serious cases are rare.” Lauterbach added that “many breakthroughs are more serious than people imagine, and they can lead to long COVID.”
Practically acknowledging the vaccines’ ineffectiveness, Lauterbach called on “anyone who enters an indoor space [to] expect getting infected despite being vaccinated.”
For “better protection” against COVID, Lauterbach recommends a mix of vaccines.
On November 5, German Health Minister Jens Spahn said that in the future everyone should be offered a booster shot of a COVID vaccine six months after receiving their previous injection.
“This should become the norm, not the exception,” Spahn stressed.
Left Party leader Susanne Hennig-Wellsow has also called for a broader booster vaccination campaign, saying the third vaccinations “must now be launched as quickly as possible,” since “the current Covid figures are frightening.”
Eugen Brysch, director of the German Foundation for Patient Protection, criticized German elders for not getting their boosters fast enough and slammed the “sluggish progress” of the booster program.
In the meantime, according to a local media report, the University Clinic in Münster (UKM) had stopped its booster rollout for its staff mere hours after it began because of the “unusually large number of side effects” reported. The outlet noted that “the onset of these adverse ‘vaccination reactions’ must therefore have been … alarming and rapid.”
The UKM administration feared that because of the number of adverse reactions to the third jab, it would be impossible to maintain the normal hospital operations. However, the administration indicated it would like to catch up on the boosters in a “coordinated” manner “later.”
As The New American has previously reported, the staggering number of breakthrough infections has been observed in other countries.
In heavily vaccinated Israel, a whopping 95 percent of all severe COVID cases were reported in August in fully vaccinated people, and 85-90 percent of all hospitalizations were also in that cohort. Responding to the growing number of infections in a country that had already been administering a third dose of its exclusively used Pfizer shot, Israeli national pandemic coordinator Salman Zarka said a fourth dose may be needed soon.
The Land Down Under reported that people inoculated against COVID were taken to hospitals with COVID in larger numbers than those who were not jabbed. Speaking in October, Victoria Health Minister Martin Foley indicated that of all recent COVID hospitalizations, 78 percent of the patients were fully vaccinated, and 17 percent were partially vaccinated, and only five percent of people hospitalized with COVID were unvaccinated.
A similar situation is observed in the United Kingdom, which on Monday extended its booster program to people aged 40 to 49 to push back against the “blizzard” of new COVID infections coming into the U.K. from continental Europe, as Prime Minister Johnson put it.
The efficacy of the vaccines is admitted to wane over time even by the vaccine manufacturers themselves, so they say the booster shots will be needed on a seasonal basis.
On November 10, Pfizer filed a request with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to make its booster shot available to all adult Americans 18 years of age and older.
In late October, Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky said that the United States may need to amend its definition of “fully vaccinated” against COVID as more Americans are expected to become eligible to receive booster shots.
