Monkeypox vaccination has been available in the US, Canada, Germany and France since late July. However, in Switzerland, people who want to be vaccinated are still waiting for the vaccine.
In late August, the Federal Council decided to purchase 40,000 doses of vaccine, plus 60,000 at a later date for the army warehouse. Cost: about 8.6 million Swiss francs. In mid-October, the Federal Office of Health (BAG) then announced that it had signed a contract with the delivery company Bavarian Nordic for the delivery of the vaccine doses.
Cantons waiting for vaccine doses
According to BAG’s media report, the first cans should be delivered at the beginning of November. But they don’t seem to be there yet. The BAG is unobtrusive and announces that the vaccination “will be offered soon”. However, if you ask the cantons responsible for the vaccination, you will see that they have not yet received doses.
According to the BAG, a total of 546 cases of monkey pox have been recorded since the end of May. These were almost exclusively men who had sex with men. However, since the beginning of September, monkeypox infections have declined sharply. The number of new infections is currently zero. And the number of infections is also decreasing in Europe.
Interest in vaccination despite declining numbers
Despite declining numbers, there is interest in vaccination. You see this, for example, in cantons such as Geneva or Basel-Stadt, where you can register in advance for the monkeypox vaccination and the number of infected people was particularly high.
In fact, the need for vaccinations is ‘enormous’, says Roman Heggli of Pink Cross, the umbrella organization for gay and bisexual men in Switzerland. The urgency is now less: “That’s why it will probably be more difficult to motivate people to vaccinate,” Heggli says. In the summer, at the height of the infection, vaccination would have been easier, according to him.
Criticism of BAG
Pink Cross hopes the vaccine will become available soon. For example, the community has followed the behavioral advice and has restricted sexual contacts. But that is not exactly sustainable, says Heggli.
The BAG says that they were “informed at an early stage about the transfer process and the behavioral advice and have collaborated with the Swiss AIDS Federation to target groups at risk”. As a result, the number of infections has already decreased. But Roman Heggli believes the BAG has put the topic of monkeypox vaccination on the back burner.