German Expert Suggests People With Most Contacts Should Get Vaccine First

People should be prioritised based on their number of contacts when it comes to receiving the coronavirus vaccine, as this would “would have a much greater effect” on the pandemic, German immunologist Michael Meyer-Hermann told local media on Sunday.

Meyer-Hermann, of the Braunschweig-based Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, pointed out that prioritising the elderly, as Germany and many other countries have done so far, had significantly reduced the death rate, but because this group had the fewest contacts, it had not yet had a major impact on the epidemic.

His comments to Berlin’s Tagesspiegel newspaper come amid frustration in Germany at the slow pace of the vaccine rollout.

READ ALSO: Breaking: Meet The First Person To Take COVID-19 Vaccine in Nigeria

Meyer-Hermann also criticised plans to gradually ease restrictions, pointing to the spread of the strain first identified in Britain.

He said he expected case numbers to “explode” and referred to the situation in Ireland, Britain, Portugal and the Czech Republic.

However, Gernot Marx, who heads a German intensive care association (DIVI), said the pandemic should end soon if the pace of the vaccine programme increases significantly and if people follow the rules.

“We will have defeated the pandemic by the end of September,” he told the Funke Media Group. Marx added that this could even be possible by mid-summer, based on data from Israel showing that those who have already been vaccinated no longer infect others with the virus.

He emphasised, however, that people should keep wearing masks in crowded areas, for example, and that other restrictions should continue in order to avoid losing the progress made so far.