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* Germany has administered just 60% of delivered AZ
doses-RKI data
* Merkel says "not ok" if vaccination appointments going
unused
* Scepticism, patchy state rollout, data monitoring play a
role
By Caroline Copley
BERLIN, March 25 (Reuters) - Berlin pensioner Gerhard
Schaeufele decided he'd prefer to wait 10 days and cross the
city for a shot of the BioNTech/Pfizer
coronavirus vaccine, rather than accept an AstraZeneca vaccine
in two days' time at his local centre.
"A week ago, maybe I would have taken AstraZeneca," the
72-year-old retired university arts teacher told Reuters,
describing himself as someone who follows his gut feeling.
But he said the recent back-and-forth over the vaccine's
efficacy and safety put him off.
AstraZeneca says its vaccine is safe and effective, citing
extensive trial data. Millions of doses have been safely
administered around the world and the EU's medicines watchdog
and the World Health Organisation have reaffirmed it safe. Most
of the states which briefly halted its use, including Germany,
have resumed giving the shot.
However, Schaeufele's hesitancy towards AstraZeneca's shot
underscores the challenge Berlin faces as it seeks to ramp up
its sluggish vaccine rollout while contending with a third wave
of the pandemic, driven by more infectious virus variants.
It's an issue faced by governments across the European Union
as they seek to get their vaccine rollouts back on track. A
third of Danes say they won't accept the Anglo-Swedish shot,
while some in France remain sceptical.
According to data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) of
infectious diseases, around 2.1 million or 60 percent of the
doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine to arrive in Germany have been
used. By comparison 83% of BioNTech/Pfizer vaccines have been
used.
A survey of Germany's states, who are responsible for the
vaccine rollout, suggests the low take-up is attributable in
part to organisational bottlenecks as well as people's
uncertainty over the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Chancellor Angela Merkel, 66, who is facing growing
criticism over her handling of the pandemic, has said she would
herself accept the AstraZeneca vaccine when her turn came.
She told the Bundestag on Thursday that it was "not ok" that
appointments were going unused.
In Berlin, the AstraZeneca shot is available at former
airports Tegel and Tempelhof, and appointments were available to
those eligible as soon as this coming weekend when Reuters
checked on Thursday.
At Berlin's four other centres, which administer BioNTech
and Moderna, no time slots were available within the
next month.
BUREAUCRATIC BACKLOGS
In Bremen, the country's smallest state, 80% of its
AstraZeneca doses have been administered with local officials
saying they were quick to offer appointments to teachers and
daycare staff once the priority list was amended on Feb. 24.
In Saxony by contrast, less than 30% of its AstraZeneca
doses have so far been used. The state has not yet made the
vaccine available in hospitals although medical staff would be
eligible, according to a person working on the rollout.
A spokeswoman for the health ministry in the state of
Saxony-Anhalt said the initial recommendation that the
AstraZeneca shot only be given to those under 65 had acted as a
hindrance, citing "greater organisational effort" to arrange
appointments for those in the next priority group.
Meanwhile, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, shots were delayed
after 12,200 AZ doses had to be put in "quarantine" for a week
due to an error in the cold chain of the delivery company.
One of the biggest hurdles for the rollout has been
inconsistent deliveries and supply constraints. But this is set
to change with deliveries of around 15 million doses in total of
all three approved vaccines in April.
Ruth Waldmann, health spokesperson for the Social Democrats
in the Bavarian state parliament, said it was time to "fire up
the vaccination turbo" by bringing on board family doctors.
Germany plans to supply doctors with a million vaccines per
week from April rising to three million by the end of the month,
and hopes this will add more firepower and flexibility to its
rollout.
Family doctors could easily inoculate 2.5 million people per
week if each practice does just 10 shots per day, according to
the national association.
(Reporting by Caroline Copley
Additional reporting by Michael Nienaber, Thomas Escritt and
Christina Amann
Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
