In Germany, a Better Vaccine for Politicians?

TIME | October 30, 2009
Tristana Moore

Critics are calling it a two-tier health system — one for the politically well connected, another for the hoi polloi. As Germany launched its mass-vaccination program against the H1N1 flu virus on Monday, the government found itself fending off accusations of favoritism because it was offering one vaccine believed to have fewer side effects to civil servants, politicians and soldiers, and another, potentially riskier vaccine to everyone else. The government had hoped that Germans would rush to health clinics to receive vaccinations against the rapidly spreading disease, but now rising anger over the different drugs may cause many people to shy away.

Amid growing fears of a possible global flu pandemic, the German government prepared for its mass-vaccination campaign earlier this year by ordering 50 million doses of the Pandemrix vaccine, enough for a double dose for 25 million people, about a third of the population. The vaccine, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, contains an immunity-enhancing chemical compound, known as an adjuvant, whose side effects are not yet entirely known. Then, after a report was leaked to the German media last week, the Interior Ministry confirmed that it had ordered a different vaccine, Celvapan, for government officials and the military. Celvapan, which is made by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Baxter, does not contain an adjuvant and is believed to have fewer side effects than Pandemrix.

Anger at the news was widespread in Germany. "If mass vaccination is considered to be necessary, then everyone should be treated the same way," says Birgitt Bender, health spokeswoman for the Green Party. Ulrike Mascher, head of the VdK social-welfare association, says giving government officials a vaccine that's different from that given to the rest of the population sent the "wrong signal" and gives many people "the impression that they are second-class patients." A story on the front page of the mass-circulation Bild newspaper accused the government of giving "second-class medicine" to regular Germans.

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