Synopsis
The vaccination campaign against Covid-19 represents a challenge of unprecedented proportions for the whole of society and, at the same time, our only way out of the pandemic. Sooner or later, the virus will reach everyone who has not been immunized by vaccination, according to the assessment of leading experts. Over a period of nine months, the documentary film Germany's Race to Vaccinate tells the story of this vaccination campaign: from the initial debate surrounding which population groups should be vaccinated first, up until the vaccination of the general population in Germany after the end of prioritization in June 2021.Beyond daily news snippets, Grimme Award winners Dominik Wessely and Antje Boehmert chronicle the vaccination campaign's central processes and settings in close and vivid everyday observations, portraying men and women who – in very different ways – drive forward the vaccination campaign every day. They are all frontline workers on our journey out of the pandemic.
The filmmakers accompany, among others, the staff of the vaccination centres in Duisburg and Stendal and a family doctor in Rhineland-Palatinate. They take an exclusive look at the work of Germany's Standing Commission on Vaccination (STIKO) and consult scientists involved in the struggle to increase vaccination acceptance: Prof. Dr. Christian Drosten and Prof. Dr. Cornelia Betsch. Through the life and work of a photographer in Pforzheim, a crematorium worker in Plauen and a paramedic from the Lower Rhine, the hardships of lockdown and the ethical questions surrounding vaccination are made visible.
The film offers a far-reaching look behind the scenes at those tackling the mammoth task of the nationwide vaccination campaign in Germany. In doing so, Germany's Race to Vaccinate presents a documentary panorama of our world in a state of emergency, something often articulated merely in the form of news headlines or statistics.