Three jabs for each one
As one of twelve pilot companies in the region, we were able to launch our own vaccination campaign back in May. Together with the team of our company doctor Katharina Busch, we made sure that every employee received a vaccination offer. Our heritage spirit helped do our part to end the pandemic.
Rapidly developed vaccines against a novel viral disease, such as Moderna's vaccine, are always accompanied by a certain unease among the public. Skeptics rightly wonder whether sufficient research has been done into possible side effects. But the hurdles for the approval of medical products - as we at Erbe know only too well - are extremely high. In the case of the vaccination campaign, research into symptoms that occur briefly immediately after the injection is important for the further development and improvement of medicine.
The most important thing initially was to educate people about vaccination in the context of society as a whole," explains company physician Katharina Busch. "People should be made aware of why it is important to do one's part to fight the pandemic." The company physician explained the effects of various vaccines and described possible side effects, the occurrence of which is not uncommon. Many of these questions circulate in the media, and they are not always answered seriously. Our company physician explained the medical effects and the process of corona vaccination in a webcast.
Finally, at a so-called vaccination summit in April, the German government decided that henceforth company physicians should also carry out vaccinations. Around 12,500 occupational physicians look after employees in German companies. Before the company doctors could get started at the beginning of June, twelve pilot companies were selected in Baden-Württemberg to set up their own vaccination center. We were among this lucky dozen.
When the news made the rounds that vaccination appointments would soon be available for the entire workforce at the site, everyone involved in the preparations realized how great the interest in the shot was, and thus indirectly probably also the desire for a return to normality, a regaining of personal freedom. Immediately after the release of the appointment allocation, a rush broke out on the website. After just a few hours, 300 appointments had already been allocated.
On the deadline date, the 600 vaccine doses were picked up by the building management at the vaccination center in Karlsruhe and hurriedly brought to Tübingen. Katharina Busch's team got started. When it was also the turn of the colleagues in Rangendingen - around one hundred people after all - there was even some vaccine left over. The Ministry of Social Affairs recommended that opened vaccine vials should not be destroyed. Because Moderna vaccine can be stored for a relatively long time, we were able to save the remaining 200 doses for the second round of vaccination at the end of June and only had to contact the vaccination center in Karlsruhe for the remaining 200 doses.
Vaccination is a safe and medically controllable way back to freedom, to normal life before Corona. And it is the less painful way to gain immunity. The non-recommendable alternative is to get sick and recover, hopefully without secondary damage. To defeat Corona, we need immunity in the majority of the population. The way to get there is a free choice.
