BHealth Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) has issued an import permit for the Chinese Sinovac vaccine. “With this approval, we want to ensure that Chinese citizens are also protected here with their own vaccine,” Lauterbach told Der Spiegel magazine on Wednesday. According to this, the vaccine may now be imported into the Federal Republic of Germany and only administered to Chinese nationals. According to the report, the basis for this is an assessment by the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI).
According to this, vaccination is only the responsibility of the Chinese embassies and consulates. There had previously been concerns about the safety of Sinovac. According to Lauterbach, these have been eliminated after the assessment by the PEI. There is now enough data about the vaccine. On this basis, he could justify the release “without ifs and buts”. Approval for Germans is therefore not planned.
No Western vaccine has been allowed in China so far
The magazine writes that introducing Sinovac is a gesture of concession to Chinese citizens in Germany. Lauterbach wants to give them more protection against the corona virus. “I can well imagine that the citizens particularly trust the vaccine,” said the Minister of Health. With the approval, people in Germany who have received the Sinovac preparation will also be considered vaccinated in future. Previously, this status only existed for people who had been immunized with vaccines recognized in Germany.
So far, no western-made vaccine has been allowed to be used in China. Maybe that will change soon. On the trip to China, Olaf Scholz campaigned for the Biontech vaccine to be administered to German and European nationals.
