Incomplete presentation: How Germany became world champion in vaccination

The speed of vaccination is causing a lot of controversy. The CDU / CSU parliamentary committee rejected the criticism in a tweet – and released a graphic of Germany becoming world champion in the vaccine. The tweet has now been deleted.

“Germany is being criticized for its vaccine management in the fight against Govt. 19. Right? Not at all!” The CDU and CSU Parliamentary Committee tweeted this on Saturday – and released a graphic about it. Numbers based on the “Our World in Data” page.

This map shows four curves that show the growth of the number of vaccines per 100 people – from December 13 to March 26. In this representation, Germany, the EU and France as a whole are almost at the top – with 14 vaccine doses per 100 people – far ahead of the global value of seven doses.

The values ​​displayed are not invalid, but incomplete. The example clearly shows how a particular message can be conveyed by selecting or bypassing the data. This is because the CDU / CSU Parliamentary Committee did not graphically take into account all the states in front of Germany. In comparison, at first glance the situation seemed much better than it really is.

Israel, Chile, USA and many more

In fact, Germany is not in the first place, but Israel Leads the rankings: The number of vaccine doses administered per 100 people is 114.63 (due to the double vaccination, more than 100 doses per 100 citizens are possible and targeted). Chile has already administered more than 50 vaccine doses, and the United States is 42 years old.

Many countries in Europe are ahead of Germany: the United Kingdom over 48, Hungary under 27, Estonia under 20, Denmark, Iceland, Lithuania and Turkey over 17. This is followed by many other countries where Germany has vaccines of less than 15 doses per 100 residents.

Not above or behind

After clear criticism, the CDU / CSU Parliamentary Group graphic was removed. The tweet was “very inappropriate, it did not meet our standards. We apologize,” the union section tweeted on Sunday afternoon.

As the Union Parliamentary Committee openly sought to see Germany’s balance sheet, Social Democrat politician Manuela Schweiz shared a graphic in February that gave Germany the last place in the world. It was also an incomplete representation.

Globally, the Federal Republic has a relatively high prevalence of the vaccine per 100 citizens – but this is mainly due to the fact that many poor countries have not yet been able to receive any or all of the vaccines. Even in Germany there are millions of vaccine doses that have not yet been used.

As infections increase rapidly, experts repeatedly call for an increase in the vaccine rate. Most recently, the German Hospital Association (TKG) demanded that the existing vaccine be used primarily for the first vaccine. The period up to the second vaccination should be used as much as possible.