The German Federal Ministry of Health (BMG), in consultation with the highest health authorities of the German federal states, has reappointed the members of the Standing Committee on Vaccination (STIKO) for a three-year term of office. The 19 experts include two scientists from the Modelling Network for Severe Infectious Diseases (MONID): Board member Dr Berit Lange and Professor Dr Stefan Flasche, member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the MONID network “OptimAgent”. Lange is Deputy Head of the Department of Epidemiology at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, Germany. She represents MONID as co-spokesperson and also heads the RESPINOW network. Since January, Flasche has been Professor of Infection Dynamics and Global Health at the Charité Center for Global Health, contributing extensive expertise in the field of mathematical modelling of infectious diseases.
“The modelling network very much welcomes the fact that the modelling of infectious diseases has been included as a relevant area of expertise in the new STIKO, in addition to the important disciplines already represented, such as immunology, virology and microbiology,” states MONID board member Junior Professor Dr Alexander Kuhlmann.
As an independent and voluntary committee of experts, the STIKO develops vaccination recommendations for the population in Germany. The committee, which is based at the Robert Koch Institute, is guided by the criteria of evidence-based medicine and evaluates both the individual value for the vaccinated person and the value for the population as a whole. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, the STIKO’s recommendations on coronavirus vaccination were widely followed.
The MONID network is continuously working to increase the capacity for infection modelling in Germany and to network scientific groups working in this field. The modelling network also provides a central point of contact for issues that can be addressed with dynamic modelling. “Close collaboration with public health institutions – such as the Robert Koch Institute – as well as an international focus and networking are crucial here. We are delighted that two MONID scientists will now be able to support the expertise of this body, which is relevant to public health in Germany, and wish Stefan Flasche and Berit Lange all the best for this task,” says Prof Dr Rafael Mikolajczyk, who is part of the MONID Executive Board alongside Lange and Kuhlmann.
Sources and further information:
– to the press release of the German Federal Ministry of Health (in German)
– to the press release of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (in English)
– to the STIKO website at the Robert Koch Institute (in English)
STIKO logo: Used with the kind permission of the STIKO office.