On the eve of Germany’s national “Vaccine Summit“ yesterday in Berlin (announcing work on a national vaccine strategy but not deciding anything concrete yet), Bavarian Minister President Markus Söder called for the creation of an “emergency vaccine economy.” In an interview with Bayerischer Rundfunk radio, Söder said that the European medical supervisory boards should certify vaccines from Russia and China as soon as possible: “If, for instance, the European Medicines Agency considers a Chinese, a Russian vaccine as safe, which is the precondition, then it does not make sense to neglect them, but one should use as these capacities.” Söder also demanded that the government no longer wait for the private producers of vaccines but “intervene to retool all available production capacities to produce more vaccines.” This points in the direction of an industry emergency act.
It is reported, but only now, that Russia already offered the EU 100 million samples of the Sputnik V vaccine for the second quarter of 2021, and that, at the beginning of January, Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed with President Vladimir Putin “potential perspectives of a joint production of vaccines.“ German Health Minister Jens Spahn also had a discussion with Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko before the Merkel-Putin talk.
