Did the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) cheat us out of a Freedom Day like in Denmark? In contrast to many commentators, the head of statutory health insurance physicians Andreas Gassen did not want to go that far after the RKI recently declared: The corona vaccination rate is probably significantly higher than previously announced. But Gassen saw the day when all pandemic restrictions will be lifted approaching. With a vaccination rate that is too low, you can no longer argue for tougher corona measures, he said. Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) also hastened to assure that, thanks to the good news, Germany could get through the winter well without any additional measures.
Both missed the core of the news. Because the RKI already admitted in August that there was a contradiction between the official quota and the results of the nationwide Covimo study, which is carried out every few weeks.
Now the RKI has counted all vaccination doses delivered for additional comparison. The result: up to 84 percent of people may have been vaccinated at least once and 80 percent twice. Which would also be a good four percentage points more than officially registered with the second vaccinations. But it could also be more, according to the next Covimo study, even 13 percentage points more.
And this is exactly the core of the RKI communication. The institute just doesn’t know. There may be a lot more people vaccinated than expected. But how much more depends on whether all doses have actually been used and how reliable the methodology of the vaccination surveys is. And even if Gassen and Spahn suggest otherwise: The admission of official ignorance does not serve as a basis for political decision-making.
The RKI must finally be reformed. A new, more independent leadership is needed that methodically delivers what is needed – and not what politics requires. A structure closer to science and faster decision-making processes are required.
Other countries have succeeded in developing an extensive system of pandemic indicators for politics. Germany, on the other hand, is poking around in the data fog even in this late phase of the pandemic.
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