How not to run an immunisation campaign
Just days after the UK began vaccinating priority groups against H1N1 swine flu, Germany began its immunisation campaign.
Both countries have bought vaccines from the same two manufacturers, GSK (Pandemrix) and Baxter (Celvapan).
But whereas the vaccination programme seemed to get off to a smooth start here, it was quite another matter in Germany.
The difference is that in Germany, ministers, government officials and the armed forces are getting Celvapan, while the general public will receive Pandemrix.
This has led to complaints of a two-tier health service, but a government spokesman said it was simply the results of different departments making their purchases without coordinating.
In the UK, (and if they do they will get the same jab as the public).
Likewise 15,000 British troops in Afghanistan are to receive Pandemrix.
Indeed, there are so few doses available of the Baxter jab in the UK that it is being reserved largely for those with a severe egg allergy. Unlike the GSK jab, it is not grown in eggs.
The German Chancellor Angela Merkel has made it clear that if she is advised to be immunised by her doctor, then she will get the Pandemrix vaccine, intended for the general public.
The Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's Tristana Moore filed a report from Berlin on the row which .
Much of the debate in Germany centred on the fact that Pandemrix contains an adjuvant, a booster chemical, called AS303 which I wrote about in my last post.
GSK has just released new data on Pandemrix and forecast that by the end of this week nearly 500,000 people across Europe will have been immunised with the vaccine.
It also published results from a small trial in Belgium suggesting that the vaccine is effective in the elderly as well as younger age groups.
This is important because some studies of seasonal flu vaccines have shown that they are less effective in older age groups.
The row in Germany is a reminder of how easy it is to undermine public confidence in healthcare.
Ministers and officials need to ask themselves, "what might people think?" with any decision they make.
Whilst it may have been a perfectly innocent purchasing decision that led to ministers and the armed forces being allocated a different vaccine to the general public, it doesn't look good. Forget the fact that both vaccines have been licensed by the European Medicines Agency.
However efficiently Germany conducts its H1N1 swine flu programme in the coming months, damage has been done and it will undoubtedly put some people off having the jab.
I'm 
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