Benedikt Richter, a 40-year-old teacher from Kaiserslautern in southwest Germany, has long refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The uniqueness of the mRNA technology utilised in two of the most routinely administered shots made him apprehensive.
Richter said it didn’t help that his sister-in-law was admitted to the hospital with heart muscle irritation a day after receiving her second dose, which doctors confirmed was caused by the vaccine. Such situations have been recognised by regulators as a rare and generally minor side effect.
He became interested in the Novavax vaccine Nuxavoxid, which uses a long-established protein-based technology, when the European Union approved its use in December.
“I did my research and I feel a little better about it now,” the father of two stated.
According to Reuters, the new two-dose vaccine, which is recommended in Germany for basic immunisation for everyone over 18, is already persuading more of the unprotected to be vaccinated.
Some federal states have established waiting lists for Novavax vaccinations. More than 14,300 people have registered in Rhineland-Palatinate, where Richter resides, for example. According to Reuters, roughly 3,000 people had registered for a private Berlin immunisation centre.
“The total is enormous. We’re completely overwhelmed by the number of people who have signed up “According to Daniel Termann, a doctor at Berlin’s Historic Factory immunisation centre.
The recombinant protein technology underpinning the Novavax shot has been used to fight hepatitis B, the human papillomavirus that causes cervical cancer, and bacteria that cause meningitis since the mid-1980s.
Unvaccinated Germans expressed more confidence in traditional vaccines than in mRNA vaccines, according to a recent survey conducted by researchers at the University of Erfurt with 1,000 participants.
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