Corona Ticker: Recommendation – No more corona vaccination for children and young people

News about Corona from May 25, 2023

Biontech: Can quickly find new ones Corona-Variants react

7.50 p.m.: The boss of the vaccine manufacturer Biontech expects the presence of the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus to continue. The corona pandemic is currently considered controlled, said CEO and Biontech co-founder Ugur Sahin on Thursday at the Annual General Meeting in Mainz. Sars-CoV-2 will probably be present for years to come and will constantly develop new variants.

Biontech’s approach therefore includes adapting the vaccines to seasonal variants and continuously monitoring potentially critical new variants worldwide, Sahin reported. The company is able to react quickly to new pandemic Sars-CoV-2 variants, even beyond the context of seasonal vaccine adjustments. He assumes that seasonal Covid 19 vaccinations can achieve a vaccination rate that is similar to that of flu vaccinations over time.

A central concern of Biontech is also the development of immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer, the CEO reported at the shareholders’ meeting. There are currently 20 programs in oncology and seven programs in infectious diseases. With its drugs, the company wants to make a contribution to making personalized cancer therapy available. Biontech has already provided clinical proof of effectiveness for various approaches.

The aim is to develop individual, tailor-made therapy for each individual patient and thus make a new generation of precision therapeutics available, said Sahin. The aim is to cover the entire continuum of cancer treatment.

New Recommendation: None Corona-Vaccination more for children and adolescents

Thursday, May 25, 7:47 p.m.: In view of the weakened pandemic situation, the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) no longer recommends corona vaccination for healthy infants, children and adolescents. No further booster vaccinations are recommended for healthy adults up to the age of 59 and pregnant women – but they should have achieved basic immunity. People over 60, on the other hand, should get an annual booster. This is what the renewed recommendations for the Stiko Covid 19 vaccination, which the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) published on Thursday, provide.

With the innovations, Stiko is including the Covid-19 vaccination in its general vaccination recommendations for 2023. So far, the committee had made separate Covid 19 vaccination recommendations during the pandemic, which were repeatedly adapted. The current step can be seen as a kind of transition from pandemic to normal mode.

The Stiko at the RKI had already presented the recommendations at the end of April. The draft decision was then sent to the federal states and specialist groups.

In the final recommendations, Stiko justifies the discontinuation of the vaccination recommendation for under 18-year-olds with predominantly mild courses and the small number of hospital admissions.

In addition to people over the age of 60, the booster recommendation also applies to residents of care facilities and people with certain previous illnesses from the age of six months, as well as to people who work in medicine and care and therefore have an increased risk of infection. Family members and close contacts of people for whom the vaccination is unlikely to have a protective effect should also receive further booster vaccinations. The preferred time is autumn, as known from the flu vaccination.

“The aim of the Covid-19 vaccination continues to be to reduce severe disease progression, hospitalization and death as well as long-term consequences after Covid-19 in the entire population,” the recommendations say.

Since the beginning of the corona pandemic, more than 38.4 million Covid-19 infections and around 174,000 deaths have been registered in Germany (as of May 25). According to the RKI, the number of cases has been falling significantly since the beginning of this year.

According to the RKI, many people in Germany have built up basic immunity: through at least two vaccinations plus a booster vaccination or infection. The authority estimates that at least half of the population in Germany has had a corona infection. Most people are vaccinated.

However, the RKI does not give the all-clear: New virus variants – from which infections that have been passed or a vaccination may protect less well – could continue to appear. In addition, it is not reliably known how long the previous vaccination protects. How the situation will develop in the future is therefore unpredictable.

Because of Corona: WHO chief is pushing for a “historic” pandemic agreement

Monday, May 22, 2023 at 06:13: After the devastating effects of the coronavirus, the World Health Organization (WHO) is pushing for a “historic” deal to deal with future pandemics. “We cannot simply continue as before,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Sunday at the opening of the UN organization’s annual meeting in Geneva. Until the end of the month, the WHO member states will discuss, among other things, how to deal with global health risks, including possible future pandemics.

Specifically, better prevention of pandemics and a possible better handling of them than with Corona is currently being discussed. Negotiations on a corresponding international agreement are still in the early stages, but should be completed by the next WHO annual meeting in May 2024.

“The pandemic treaty that the member states are currently negotiating must become a historic treaty,” Tedros demanded. There must be a “paradigm shift in global health policy”. It must be recognized that “our destinies are connected”.

During the corona pandemic, there were repeated accusations, especially against rich industrialized countries, that they were only pursuing their own interests and, for example, ignored the needs of poor countries when it came to vaccines. According to the WHO, at least 20 million people died worldwide as a result of the corona pandemic.

Citizens had to pay that much because of corona violations in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania

Sunday, May 21, 9:14 a.m.: The districts and urban districts in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania imposed fines of a good 1.2 million euros from 2020 to the beginning of 2023 for violations of the corona protection measures. This emerges from the response of the state government to a small request from AfD member of parliament Martin Schmidt. The government had started a query with the municipalities to answer.

According to this, the regulatory offices initiated more than 14,100 administrative offense proceedings, almost 7,500 ended with a fine. According to the information, most of the procedures were in the Vorpommern-Rügen district with around 4,000. The sum of the fines was also highest there at around 457,000 euros in the years 2020 to 2022. According to earlier information from the district, the most common violations were contact restrictions and the entry of foreigners, which was now prohibited.

In Schwerin, fines totaling 282,000 euros were imposed up to and including 2023, and 220,000 euros in Rostock. The district of Ludwigslust-Parchim ranks at the lower end of the scale with fines of around 4800 euros. There, the authorities initiated only 254 procedures, 45 of which led to a fine.

WHO: Pandemic wiped out more than 300 million years of life

Friday, May 19, 4:21 p.m.: According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 336.8 million years of life were lost as a result of deaths related to Covid-19. According to the statistical yearbook of the UN health authority, which was published in Geneva on Friday, this estimate makes the true extent of the pandemic clear.

The WHO attributes a total of around 14.9 million deaths to the coronavirus in 2020 and 2021 alone. The organization calculates that on average a life was shortened by around 22 years each time.

According to WHO statistics, the pandemic also had a negative impact on the global fight against communicable diseases because vaccination and health services were temporarily no longer offered. As a result, vaccinations against measles, tetanus and other diseases have declined, while malaria and tuberculosis have increased.

Away from Corona, the WHO expressed concern that the annual number of deaths from noncommunicable diseases will increase to around 77 million per year by the middle of this century – almost 90 percent more than in 2019. Even before 2019, the WHO recorded significant increases in fatal heart, respiratory and cancer diseases. This trend was mainly driven by the increase in world population and life expectancy. However, the likelihood of dying from such diseases has decreased for people around the world in recent decades, the WHO emphasizes.

Virologist Drosten insulted: charges brought against Berlin campers

Wednesday, May 17, 8:12 p.m.: The Neubrandenburg public prosecutor has brought charges against three Berliners who are said to have insulted the prominent virologist Christian Drosten at a campsite in the Mecklenburg Lake District. A 48-year-old man is accused of defamation, insult and attempted coercion, a spokesman for the authority said on Wednesday. In addition, his wife and an acquaintance are also accused of publicly insulting the virologist at the end of June 2022 on the camping site near Wesenberg. Drosten gained nationwide fame as an expert in the corona pandemic, but was also often confronted with hostilities.

The accused are said to have described Drosten in front of other campers, among other things, as a “mass murderer” and “criminal”. In addition, it had been claimed that he was wrongly holding scientific titles. According to Drosten, he only stayed briefly at the campsite, left as planned and reported the incidents.

According to the prosecutor, the accused wanted to drive the virologist out of the campsite. In addition, cell phone recordings of him are said to have been distributed against Drosten’s will. The district court in Waren an der Müritz is now to negotiate the charges.

You can read older news about the corona pandemic on the following pages.