STICHWORTE: • • • •von

Warum Groß­britan­nien bei der Impfung gewinnt

Wir haben schon viel gehört, warum die EU und Deutschland beim Beschaffen und Verabreichen von Impfstoffen „alles richtig machen“. Und dass andere weiter vorn liegen, hätte damit zu tun, dass sie weniger auf die Sicherheit ihrer Bürger achten und Geld verschwenden würden. Überhaupt: Es ist alles gut, jeder, der will, wird geimpft und wir befinden uns in den Händen der kompetentesten Regierung überhaupt.

Dann schauen wir uns mal an, wie es die Länder machen, die nicht so gut regiert werden. Beispiel: Großbritannien. POLITICO fasst es zusammen:

  • „The country has administered over 3 million doses to people across the U.K. since it began vaccinating against the coronavirus in early December, with more than 415,000 people in England having already received both shots required for maximum protection.“ – bto: Immerhin fünf Prozent der Bevölkerung sind geimpft. Bei uns ist es ein Prozent und der Steigungswinkel der Kurven sieht deutlich zugunsten UK aus.
  • „(…) though well behind world-leader Israel on 24 jabs per 100 people — is double that of Denmark, Europe’s runner up on that metric. After the U.K., just among the EU27 have an inoculation rate of one per 100 people or more.“ – bto: Das sieht nach einem wirklichen Erfolg aus.

Kommen wir auf die Ursachen für diese gute Entwicklung:

Schnelle Zulassung

  • „The U.K.’s first advantage was in getting going early. The country’s drugs regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), was the first in Europe to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, back on December 2 — weeks ahead of the European Medicines Agency. This opened the door to nearly 1 million doses of that jab — manufactured in Belgium — being delivered to the U.K. by the second week of December.“ – bto: Erste Lehre: Wer früher bestellt und abnimmt, hat auch früher was in den Händen.
  • „These prompt decisions were possible because the U.K. changed national medicine regulations in the fall to enable the MHRA to give temporary authorization to a vaccine that meets safety and efficacy standards but has yet to finish the licensing process. This mechanism was available to all EU countries, but they opted for a more rigorous licensing procedure in which the companies, rather than taxpayers, accept liability if there are problems. (…) Operating outside the EMA process, even though it was vastly accelerated, meant avoiding the inevitable extra bureaucracy of working with 27 other countries.“ – bto: So ist es. Weniger Bürokratie.
  • „Other factors helped: Not only is the MHRA internationally known for its extensive experience in approving vaccines, but its staff was largely freed up because it didn’t have to take part in any EU-level drug assessments due to Brexit. The EU, meanwhile, has yet to approve the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.“ – bto: Und es ist auch Kompetenz! Es ist deshalb auch ungerecht, vom “britischen Virus” zu reden, nur weil die Briten mehr als hundertmal so viele Untersuchungen auf Mutationen durchführen wie Deutschland.

Früher Einkauf und Produktionsgarantien

  • „By mid-August, Britain had signed in-principle agreements securing four types of coronavirus vaccines with drugmakers AstraZeneca, Pfizer/BioNtech, Valneva, GSK/Sanofi, Novavax and Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen. This might have been helped by long-standing relationships between Bingham’s team and the pharma sector — a closeness that has nonetheless been criticized.“ – bto: Natürlich hilft es, wenn der Regulator nahe am Sektor ist. Bei uns sitzt übrigens das Paul-Ehrlich-Institut unweit von Biontech. Das hätte man nicht nur nutzen sollen, sondern müssen.
  • „Suspicion lingers that the U.K. was quicker than the EU in securing deals for some, though not all, of the vaccines because Brussels fought much harder to shift liability clauses in the contracts from taxpayers to the companies. On price, too, the U.K., as a much smaller market, will have struggled to secure as favorable a deal. How much less favorable will remain unclear, however, as the details of the deals with the manufacturers are not public.“ – bto: na und? Angesichts des wirtschaftlichen Schadens ist es komplett falsch, auf den Euro zu achten beim Einkauf.
  • „Then there is production. AstraZeneca officials said Wednesday that they’re scaling up manufacturing of their vaccine very quickly and are on track to be able to release 2 million doses a week by the end of March. This vaccine is being manufactured in Britain, and the effort has been aided by an 18-month agreement between the government and generic drugmaker Wockhardt, signed in August, to fill the vials and package up to 100 million doses for use in the U.K., at a north Wales manufacturing facility, in the coming months.“ – bto: Die Regierung hat die Produktionskapazität gesichert! Brillant! Das beweist auch, dass die Kritiker, die behaupten, man hätte an den Produktionsengpässen nichts ändern können, völlig falschliegen. 
  • „The U.K. is also developing new clinical trial capability to accelerate vaccine development using human challenge studies, where young healthy volunteers will receive the vaccine prior to being infected with the virus — an approach used to fight other diseases, including typhoid and flu.“ – bto: Hallo Deutschland? Geht natürlich nicht, nur mit der EU und die hat bekanntlich ganz andere Prioritäten.

Klare Zielvorgaben

  • „In its vaccines delivery plan, published on Monday, the government set itself a target to vaccinate 14 million people by mid-February. In this first phase, efforts are focused on the priority groups identified by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI): care home residents and their carers; frontline health and social care workers; people aged 70 or over and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals. According to the JCVI, these groups account for 88 percent of the U.K.’s coronavirus deaths.“ – bto: Das ist richtig, weil man dann keinen Lockdown mehr braucht!
  • „In contrast, the European Commission produces recommendations for which groups to vaccinate first, but EU countries are free to go their own way.“ – bto: was keine Rolle spielt, wenn man keinen Impfstoff hat.

Erstimpfung im Fokus

  • „The British government made a decision in late December to prioritize the administration of the first dose of the vaccine, upon the recommendation of the JCVI. In contrast to the EU’s more cautious approach, the plan is to give as many people in the at-risk groups their first dose, rather than providing the required two doses in as short a time as possible. (…) The clinical logic is that one dose provides a substantial degree of protection while allowing scarce vaccine resources to be rolled out to more vulnerable people quickly. But the decision has raised eyebrows in the EU, with some scientists questioning whether such a big gap could reduce effectiveness, since the two doses were given 28 days apart during clinical trials. Only Denmark is taking a similar approach so far in the EU, but others, including Germany, are considering whether to follow suit.“ – bto: Wir müssen unsere Alten/Gefährdeten ja nicht schnell schützen. Wir können ja einfach die Wirtschaft ganz zumachen. Spielt ja keine Rolle.

Einfache Buchungssysteme für Impfung

  • „Booking an appointment with the U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS) for a jab is an easy process that can be made online or via telephone, without the need for a GP consultation. Hundreds of thousands of people in the four priority groups have received letters inviting them to make appointments.“ – bto: Und das ist kein Wunderwerk. Konzertveranstalter können ja auch innerhalb weniger Stunden 80.000 Tickets für die Rolling Stones verkaufen. Also gibt es die Technologie.
  • „By comparison, individuals in France must see their GPs five days before getting the jab and give their written consent after being informed of potential contra-indications. (…) and in Germany, technical issues with online booking have prevented some people from getting a jab.“ – bto: Tja, man braucht schon ein Faxgerät und Geduld.

Großes Netzwerk an Impfzentren

  • „The U.K. government has committed to ensuring that every person has a vaccination center within 10 miles of their home. (…) People in England will soon be able to get jabs at one of the around 1,200 GP-led vaccination hubs and set to open by Friday, and the 206 hospital hub sites that should be up and running by the end of this month. In addition, mobile sites will be deployed in remote rural areas. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pledged 24-hour, seven-day-a-week vaccination centers in England as soon as possible (…).” – bto: Ich finde, so inkompetent, wie die Briten bei uns dargestellt werden, sind sie wirklich nicht.
  • „(…) Britain has not shied away from private entrepreneurship. NHS England has selected Asda to become the first supermarket to provide in-store coronavirus vaccinations starting on January 25. Its vaccination center will operate from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week. Other Asda sites are being assessed and could join the program. Boots, a chain of independent pharmacies, is opening its first jabs site this week, and a YouGov poll suggests there’s vast support for including this type of businesses in the vaccine rollout. This idea has been proposed in other EU countries such as Spain, but critics there have pushed back, arguing that the involvement of private providers could undermine the country’s public health care system.“ – bto: Impfen bei Aldi, das wäre es doch! Ah, wir haben ja gar keinen Impfstoff …

Frewillige und Militär helfen

  • „Armed Forces are contributing to the vaccination campaign by transporting doses around the country and identifying areas not covered by the vaccination network. There are also 21 quick reaction forces on standby that could be deployed to hospitals, local vaccination services and mass vaccination centers if the NHS needs extra hands. (…) Britain can also tap into the network of more than 200,000 people who have expressed their interest in volunteering in roles such as stewards and first-aiders.“ – bto: vorbildlich. 

Kampf den Skeptikern

  • „The U.K. was among the first countries to devise a communications campaign to tackle misinformation and misgivings among some people about taking the vaccine. By mid-November, Whitehall had already come up with a plan to fight the anti-vaccine movement on multiple fronts, including a rebuttal team aided by government departments spreading positive messages in their areas and working with social media firms to take down damaging content.“ – bto: In Deutschland hingegen werden die Skeptiker bestärkt durch ein mediales Durcheinander und Politiker-Erklärungen, die betonen, es gäbe keine Pflicht, statt zu sagen: „Her damit, ich will es auch!”

Für mich klingen die Briten nicht schlecht. Boris Johnson statt Merkel, Spahn und von der Leyen? Wenn die Briten in den kommenden Jahren bei wichtigen Weichenstellungen genauso vorn liegen, dürfte die EU in zehn Jahren ganz andere Diskussionen haben.

→ politico.eu: “8 reasons the UK leads Europe’s coronavirus vaccination race”, 14. Januar 2021