8557 people need to be vaccinated again

In the Frisian town of Schortens, a nurse carried out vaccinations with saline solution. As early as April 21, it became known that the suspicious employee had not injected six people with the Biontech active ingredient intended for them.

Now the scandal is spreading: In the meantime, it can be assumed that the employee has only drawn up 8557 syringes with saline solution. This is what Friesland District Administrator Sven Ambrosy (SPD) said on Tuesday in Jever. The NDR had initially reported:

The affected people would now be written to by the district to catch up on the possibly missing vaccinations, said Ambrosy on Tuesday in Jever. In addition, there is a free telephone number.

The missing vaccinations should now be made up as soon as possible. “We have to avert the harm from these people, even if we don’t know how many people are really affected,” said Ambrosy.

Even in the unlikely event that two vaccinations should already be available, further vaccinations are medically harmless after consulting the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) and the Standing Vaccination Commission (STIKO), said the President of the Lower Saxony State Health Office, Matthias Pulz. The side effects could then be the same as with a second vaccination – “maybe a little more pronounced,” said Pulz. “But then there are side effects to be expected immediately and not unusual complications.”

Above all, people who are over 70 years old are said to be affected. However, employees of mobile care services, hospice employees, educators and doctors were also vaccinated during the period, said the deputy Corona crisis team leader Claudia Schröder. According to their information, they should be informed by post or email. At the same time, she encouraged everyone to accept an offer to re-vaccinate. “Around 8,500 people are now faced with the question: ‘Should I get vaccinated again?’ We can only absolutely recommend it. “

Action could have been politically motivated

Originally it was assumed that the woman wanted to cover up the fact that her ampoules had fallen off. In the meantime, however, the police found out that the woman had shared vaccination-critical texts on social media. Now the specialist commissioner for politically motivated crime has taken over the investigation.

This was explained by the deputy head of the Wilhelmshaven / Friesland police station, Peter Beer, at a press conference. In addition, the woman distributed corona-critical information via a chat, said Beer. “But that is all that we have found so far in the course of the investigation.” According to the police, the woman is silent about the event.

In the allegedly affected persons, the vaccination protection was checked with antibody tests. These can reveal whether something else was injected instead of the vaccine, because then no antibodies against the spike protein are produced.

“If these people only received saline solution, they would not have any antibodies either, unless they were infected,” said the immunologist Carsten Watzl, Secretary General of the German Society for Immunology, to the Tagesspiegel.

Antibody tests should determine vaccination status

However, if only one of the two vaccinations had been given with saline and the other had the vaccine, things would become more complicated. “Because then most of the antibody levels would be there, but lower.”

Watzl believes that there is a great need in the population for meaningful tests on the vaccination status in order to combat the pandemic and, above all, for the currently heated discussion about booster vaccinations for fully vaccinated people. “From a medical point of view, it would be nice if, before deciding on a booster vaccination, you could first check whether the titer – that is, the amount – of the antibody has dropped so much that a booster is even necessary.” (tsp)