„To clarify at the outset: when it is my turn to be vaccinated, I will of course get vaccinated. I live in a multigeneration home and want to protect everyone, including my elderly mother. One thing is clear: the more people are vaccinated, the fewer hosts the virus finds. And the more difficult the conditions for the virus to spread.
And, I am sure that most caregivers also have this insight and get vaccinated. Because vaccination is the only chance to a quick end of the pandemic and thus the best protection for people in need of care. Based on current knowledge, about 95 out of every 100 vaccinated people are protected from disease. Moreover, we have rightly stipulated that the elderly as well as people who have contact to others who are particularly at risk from Covid-19 due to their occupation should be vaccinated first. As the Federal Government’s Caregiver Representative, I thus appeal to all caregivers to get vaccinated.
Concerns that the accelerated approval process is not as safe are unfounded. Certainly, more educational work needs to be done here. Everyone should know that the accelerated approval procedure should not be confused with the emergency approval procedure that has been carried out in some other countries. Before the vaccine was approved for marketing in the EU or Germany, it had to be safe, effective and well-tested. This was established with the approval. Good information on this can be found, for example, on the website of the Robert Koch Institute or at www.zusammengegencorona.de, a site of the German Federal Ministry of Health.“
Andreas Westerfellhaus is the Federal Government’s Caregiver Representative, was himself engaged as an intensive care nurse for many years, and is an advocate for the rights of nurses. His appeal can be found on www.pflegebevollmaechtigter.de and in the Rheinische Post.
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