Germany will supply its inhabitants a brand new protein-based Covid-19 vaccine comparable to standard flu jabs this week, within the hope of swaying a sizeable minority that is still sceptical of the novel mRNA know-how utilized in probably the most generally used vaccines.
About 1.4m doses of the Nuvaxovid vaccine developed by the US biotech firm Novavax are to reach in Germany this week, the nation’s well being minister, Karl Lauterbach, confirmed final Friday. An additional million doses are to reach the week after, with the German authorities’s complete order for the yr 2022 amounting to 34m doses.
Novavax’s product has till now been used solely in Indonesia and the Philippines, however it was permitted to be used within the EU final December. It’s nonetheless awaiting authorisation within the US, as some issues in regards to the firm’s manufacturing capability persist.
In contrast to the novel mRNA vaccines produced by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna or viral vector made by AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, Nuvaxovid is a protein subunit vaccine. It accommodates a non-infectious part on the floor of the Sars-CoV-2 virus, which induces a protecting immune response when the physique’s immune cells come into contact with it.
Novavax introduced in June final yr that its vaccine had confirmed greater than 90% efficient towards symptomatic infections with the Alpha variant, in trials together with almost 30,000 volunteers within the US and Mexico.
The corporate says its product is equally efficient towards the Delta and Omicron variants, particularly after a booster shot administered six months after the second jab. Germany’s Paul Ehrlich Institute notes that the information proving the vaccine’s efficacy towards extra infectious variants stays restricted.
Surveys in Germany recommend a substantial curiosity within the Novavax jab among the many 19.8 million folks within the nation who’ve to this point declined to take a jab towards Covid-19. Out of 4,000 unvaccinated hospital staff surveyed in Berlin, 1,800 expressed an curiosity within the protein-based vaccine.
Within the northern state of Decrease Saxony, the well being ministry stated 6,000 folks had put their title on a ready record for Nuvaxovid by early February.
Some scientists query whether or not the brand new vaccine will show a gamechanger in a rustic whose total vaccination charge has been flatlining at about 75% for months. Lars Korn, a co-author of a present survey of anti-vaccine attitudes performed by the College of Erfurt, instructed the general public broadcaster ZDF that two-thirds of respondents would proceed to utterly reject any type of vaccination.