The willingness to be vaccinated against the coronavirus in Germany is stagnating more and more. According to the RKI, the vaccination rate is currently 56.1 percent. 62.8 percent of the population has already received the first vaccination. However, the number of vaccine doses administered has been decreasing again for several weeks.

According to an opinion poll conducted by the INSA institute for Bild am Sonntag, this will not change: Only one in four unvaccinated people say they still want to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. 54 percent of the unvaccinated do not want to take up the vaccination offer in principle. This is due to a lack of confidence in the vaccine as well as medical reasons.However, as immunologist Carsten Watzl explains on Twitter, there are only a few people who are affected. In principle, only children under twelve years of age would object tovaccination, because there is no approved vaccine for this age group yet. The other group are persons who are allergic to an ingredient of the vaccine, according to Watzl.

The Robert Koch Institute also recommends that people who have already had an allergic reaction to a medication or vaccination consult their family doctor before vaccination. Possible allergens can be the active ingredient itself or the so-called polyethylene glycol (PEG), as the Paul Erhlich Institute (PEI) explains. PEG is also frequently used as an additive in cosmetics or medicines. However, allergic reactions occur very rarely, according to the PEI: Only in 0.4 to 11.8 cases per million vaccine doses have allergic reactions been reported so far.

According to reports from ntv, there are hardly any known pre-existing conditions that rule out a Corona vaccination across the board. Basically, anyone who wants to can be vaccinated. However, certain groups, such as pregnant women or cancer patients, should consult their doctor beforehand.

In Germany, there are currently no approved vaccines for pregnant women, but data from other countries would show that vaccination can be done without any problems, says Watzl. As STIKO explains, due to the highly contagious delta variant, it may well make sense for pregnant women to be vaccinated from the second trimester onwards.

Pre-existing conditions: Corona vaccination still possible

For patients with a clotting disorder, there is no higher risk of sinus vein thrombosis from any of the vaccines, according to Watzl. Often, if patients have pre-existing conditions, there is also the option of getting a different vaccine. People with capillary leak syndrome, for example, will be excluded from vaccination with AstraZeneca or Johnson & Johnson. But they have the option of being vaccinated with an mRNA vaccine, the immunologist said.

In people with autoimmune disease, there is a very rare risk that an attack will be triggered, but "a general exclusion of vaccination" is not, says Watzl. Because: This risk is not higher with a Corona vaccination than with other vaccinations. To these results also a study came at the German center immune therapy. However, in people with a weakened immune system, for example, cancer patients, there is a risk that the vaccination protection will only have a limited effect, says Watzl.

Image by DoroT Schenk