Tag: Study

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Health

AstraZeneca Photographs Carry Barely Larger Danger of Bleeding Drawback, New Research Says

AstraZeneca Shots Carry Slightly Higher Risk of Bleeding Problem, New Study Says

People who received the Covid vaccine, made by Oxford-AstraZeneca, were at a slightly increased risk of developing a bleeding disorder and possibly other rare blood problems, researchers reported Wednesday.

The results of a study of 2.53 million adults in Scotland who received their first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine or the vaccine obtained from Pfizer-BioNTech were published in Nature Medicine. About 1.7 million of the shots were from the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The study found no increased risk of blood disorders with the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine.

The AstraZeneca vaccine is not approved in the United States, but it has been approved by the European Medicines Agency, the top drug agency in the European Union, as well as many countries outside the bloc. However, reports of rare coagulation and bleeding disorders in younger adults, some of which were fatal, led a number of countries to restrict the use of the vaccine to the elderly and a few to discontinue it altogether.

The new study found that the AstraZeneca vaccine was linked to a slight increase in the risk of a condition called immune thrombocytopenic purpura, or ITP, which can cause bruising in some cases but severe bleeding in others. The risk was estimated to be 1.13 cases per 100,000 people who received their first dose up to 27 days after vaccination. This estimate would be in addition to the typical pre-vaccine incidence in the UK, which has been estimated at six to nine cases per 100,000.

The condition is treatable, and none of the cases in vaccine recipients have been fatal, the researchers said. They stressed that the vaccine’s benefits far outweigh the low risk, noting that Covid itself is much more likely than the vaccine to cause ITP

However, the researchers also wrote that while the risks of the AstraZeneca vaccine are low, “alternative vaccines for those at low risk of Covid-19 may be warranted if supplies allow”.

It wasn’t surprising to find ITP in a few vaccine recipients, the researchers said, noting that the risk also increased slightly with those vaccinated against measles, mumps, and rubella, as well as those vaccinated against hepatitis B and flu.

In a comment published with the study, blood disease experts said ITP could be difficult to diagnose and that the possible association needed further analysis. But they wrote, “Still, the risk of vaccination-induced ITP appears to be far less at the suggested rate than the many risks associated with Covid-19 itself.”

The study in Scotland also found a very small increased risk of arterial clots and bleeding that may be associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine. However, the researchers said there wasn’t enough data to conclude that the vaccine has been linked to a rare type of blood clot in the brain called cerebral venous sinus thrombosis. Earlier this year, reports of these brain clots resulted in some countries suspending or restricting use of the vaccine.

The researchers said they couldn’t rule out a link to the brain clots, but there weren’t enough cases to analyze them.

The brain clots are “as rare as chicken teeth,” said Prof. Aziz Sheikh, lead author of the study from the University of Edinburgh, during a press conference.

Similar concerns have been raised about a rare condition associated with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is approved in the US and other countries, particularly in younger women with brain clots and bleeding. Six U.S. cases, including one fatality, prompted federal health officials to order an interruption in use of the vaccine in April. The break was lifted after 10 days and the vaccine was reinstated with a label to warn consumers of the risk of clots and the availability of other vaccines. Several more cases were later identified and doctors were advised to avoid using heparin, a standard treatment, in these cases as it can make the condition worse.

The risk of clotting has led Denmark to reject the use of the AstraZeneca or Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson’s vaccines both use so-called viral vectors to deliver genetic material into the recipient’s cells, and some researchers have suggested that the vectors can lead to the rare blood diseases. It is not known whether there is a connection.

The Scotland study authors said they did not know if their results on the AstraZeneca vaccine had any effect on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which they did not study.

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Health

Aspirin doesn’t enhance survival for Covid sufferers: UK research

Aspirin does not improve survival for Covid patients: UK study

A patient suffering from COVID-19 will be treated on May 20th, 2021 in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Darmstadt Clinic in Darmstadt.

Kai Pfaffenbach | Reuters

LONDON – The cheap and widely available drug aspirin does not improve the survival of patients hospitalized with Covid-19, a UK study found.

Oxford University researchers had hoped the blood-thinning drug could help hospitalized Covid-19 patients who are at increased risk of blood clots forming in their blood vessels, particularly in the lungs, but found that aspirin was not helped prevent deaths.

On the study – part of a larger “RECOVERY” study that looked at various possible treatments for people hospitalized with coronavirus, nearly 15,000 patients were hospitalized with the virus. About half of the patients received 150 mg of aspirin daily compared to the other half who received only the usual treatment.

The study found that “there was no evidence that aspirin treatment reduced mortality” and “no significant difference” in the number of people who died, with 17% of people in both groups dying after 28 days in the hospital.

“The data shows that aspirin was not associated with a reduction in 28-day mortality or the risk of progression to invasive mechanical ventilation or death in patients hospitalized with Covid-19,” said Peter Horby , Professor of Emerging Infectious Diseases in the Nuffield Department of Medicine at the University of Oxford and lead investigator of the RECOVERY study, said the study.

“While aspirin was associated with a slightly increased chance of a live discharge, that does not appear to be enough to justify its widespread use in patients hospitalized with Covid-19.”

Martin Landray, professor of medicine and epidemiology in the Nuffield Department of Population Health at the University of Oxford and a lead researcher on the study, described the results as “disappointing”.

“There was strong evidence that blood clotting could be responsible for deterioration in lung function and death in patients with severe Covid-19. Aspirin is inexpensive and is often used in other illnesses to reduce the risk of blood clots, so it is disappointing that it did. ”Did not have much of an impact on these patients. That’s why large randomized trials are so important – to find out which treatments work and which don’t. “

The RECOVERY study has already made several life-saving discoveries, including that dexamethasone, a cheap and widely used steroid, was able to save lives in seriously ill Covid-19 patients.

The results of the latest aspirin study will be published shortly on the pre-print site medRxiv and have been submitted to a leading peer-reviewed medical journal.

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Politics

Stimulus Checks Considerably Lowered Hardship, Research Exhibits

Stimulus Checks Substantially Reduced Hardship, Study Shows

“It bridged a gap,” Ms. Ray said, while she waited for slower forms of assistance, like rental aid.

Then she got cancer. To confirm the diagnosis and guide her treatment, she had to contribute $600 to the cost of a CT scan, which she did with the help of a payment in April totaling $2,800.

In addition to providing for the test, Ms. Ray said, the checks brought hope. “I really got down and depressed,” she said. “Part of the benefit of the stimulus to me was God saying, ‘I got you.’ Spiritual and emotional reassurance. It took a lot of stress off me.”

Scott Winship, who studies poverty at the American Enterprise Institute, questioned the reliability of the census data used in the University of Michigan study, noting that fewer than one in 10 of the households the government contacts answer the biweekly surveys.

He also argued that hardship would have fallen anyway, since the last round of stimulus checks coincided with tax season, which sends large sums to low-wage workers through tax credits. Between the earned-income tax credit and the child tax credit, a single parent with two children can receive up to nearly $8,500 a year.

Researchers at Columbia University estimate that poverty fell sharply in March, but Zachary Parolin, a member of the Columbia team, said that about half the decline would have occurred without the pandemic relief, primarily because of the tax credits.

Noting that the stimulus checks allocated as much to households with incomes above $100,000 as they did to those below $30,000, Mr. Winship called them inefficient and a poor model for future policy. “It’s not sustainable to just give people enough cash to eliminate poverty,” he said. “And in the long run it can have negative consequences by reducing the incentives to work and marry.”

Analysts have long debated the merits of cash versus targeted assistance like food stamps or housing subsidies. Cash is easy to send and flexible to use. But targeted benefits offer more assurance that the aid is used as intended, and they attract political support from related businesses like grocers and landlords.

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Health

U.S. begins research testing mix-and-match Covid vaccine doses

U.S. begins study testing mix-and-match Covid vaccine doses

A healthcare doctor prepares a dose of Johnson & Johnson’s Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) vaccine for a commuter during the opening of MTA’s public vaccination program on the 179th Street subway station in the Queens borough of New York City in front. USA, May 12, 2021.

Shannon Stapleton | Reuters

The National Institutes of Health announced Tuesday that they had started an early-stage clinical trial looking into what happens when an adult fully vaccinated with a type of Covid-19 vaccine like Pfizer’s is boosted with another vaccination about three to four months later.

The study will enroll approximately 150 adults who have received any of the three Covid vaccination regimens currently available under the Food and Drug Administration’s emergency approval: Johnson & Johnsons, Moderna, or Pfizer.

Federal health officials said people who have not yet received an approved vaccine are also eligible to enroll in a separate group for the study. These volunteers will receive two doses of the vaccine from Moderna and will receive a booster dose of one of the three vaccines around 12 to 20 weeks later, officials said.

“Although the vaccines currently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration offer strong protection against COVID-19, we must prepare for the possibility that booster vaccinations will be required to counter declining immunity and step up with an evolving virus said Dr Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a member of the NIH.

“The results of this study are intended to inform public health policy decisions about the potential use of mixed vaccination schedules in the event that booster doses are indicated,” he added.

The study is taking place as drug makers and some scientists are now saying that people will likely need a booster dose of the Covid-19 vaccines and possibly additional vaccinations every year, just like they did with seasonal flu.

Pfizer and Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccines currently require two doses three to four weeks apart, while Johnson & Johnson vaccines only require one prick. All three vaccines have been shown to be highly effective against Covid, although company executives now expect this strong protection to wear off over time.

Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said last month that Covid-19 booster vaccinations could be required for fully vaccinated individuals within a year.

“So, hopefully, you know, it would be nice if it turned out it would be a year before someone needed a refresher,” said Marks on the 18th of school and junior journalists.

“But we still don’t know,” he added. “It could be more, it could be a little less, but … that’s just something we need to find out over time.”

Each vaccine group in the NIH study will enroll about 25 people ages 18 to 55 and about 25 people ages 56 and older.

Twelve to 20 weeks after their initial vaccination, participants in the study will receive a single booster dose of the Moderna vaccine.

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Health

Poor Individuals Extra Prone to Have Respiratory Issues, Examine Finds

Poor Americans More Likely to Have Respiratory Problems, Study Finds

But that has changed drastically. By the survey period 2017-18, current and former smoking rates among the wealthiest dropped by nearly half to 34 percent — while rates among the poorest inched up to 57.9 percent

Though smoking is an acquired habit, lower-income people may be more likely to use tobacco to cope with the stresses of poverty, Dr. Gaffney said. Tobacco advertising often targets low-income communities, and there is a higher density of tobacco stores in poor neighborhoods, according to the authors of a commentary accompanying the study. Poor people may also have more limited access to smoking cessation programs and replacement therapies, they said.

“We’re increasingly thinking of tobacco dependence as a disease,” said Dr. Sarath Raju, an assistant professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins University and one of the authors of the commentary. “Individual responsibility is important, but without appropriate treatment or access to treatment to help you quit, that’s a challenge.”

Among children, asthma rates increased in all income groups after 1980, but they rose more sharply among children from poorer households. There was little difference in asthma rates in young children aged 6 to 11 before 1980, which stood at 3 percent to 4 percent. But by 2017-18, rates among the poor increased to 14.8 percent, compared with 6.8 percent among children from the highest income families. (A similar pattern emerged among adults; statistical adjustments for smoking only slightly reduced the differences.)

Among low-income adults, rates of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, an inflammatory lung disease, have long been higher than among wealthier individuals. But rates have increased, widening the gap, with prevalence among the poorest Americans increasing to 16.3 percent from 10.4 percent, even as the rate remained stable, at 4.4 percent, among the wealthiest.

Between 1959 and 2019, poorer and less-educated adults consistently reported more troubling respiratory symptoms, like labored breathing, than wealthier, more educated people. For some symptoms, like having a problem cough, the gap between the rich and poor widened over time.

Wheezing rates fell for the highest income and most educated groups, but they remained stable in the poor, least educated groups, the study found.

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Health

Small Examine Seems at Kids With Covid Inflammatory Syndrome

Children With Covid Inflammatory Syndrome May Overcome Their Most Serious Symptoms

Dr. Newburger, who was not involved in the UK report, called it a “small but important study” that “adds new information to the knowledge gap about the long-term effects of MIS-C”.

They and the authors themselves noted that the results were limited because the children in the study were not compared with a control group of children without MIS-C or those with other diseases. For example, it is unclear whether her emotional problems and muscle weakness were the result of the syndrome, the process of being hospitalized for an illness, or other stressors during that time. “Mental health and physical condition affected children and adolescents in general during the pandemic,” said Dr. Newburger.

Dr. Srinivas Murthy, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of British Columbia who was not involved in the new study, said it may be difficult to figure out which residual problems were directly due to the syndrome and which could result from critical illness. He said the fact that some of the children still had problems with muscle weakness and stamina could bring important lessons as such problems may require different types of care, including “post-hospital rehabilitation options.”

Dr. Penner said the Great Ormond Street Hospital team had made changes to the way they treat children hospitalized with the syndrome since the fall because they recognized “how badly their muscles are initially affected and how much they are tired and these children are weakened. “

In the hospital, for example, “it is extremely difficult for these children to just go from bed to the bathroom,” he said.

The hospital is now more focused on providing hospitalized physiotherapy and working with musculoskeletal therapists to the children, sending them home with a customized rehabilitation plan linked to an app.

“We also involved our occupational therapists and developed a once-a-month fatigue program where parents dial in for a group session,” said Dr. Jerk. “I think the main message we are giving them is to avoid this boom-and-bust cycle where the kids try to do the things they used to do at full speed and then kind of crash afterwards – as opposed to a gradual increase in activity back to its normal state. “

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Business

The place are unvaccinated Individuals touring? Massive cities, examine suggests

Where are unvaccinated Americans traveling? Big cities, study suggests

Vaccinated and unvaccinated Americans have different attitudes about traveling this spring, according to a marketing tech company. And they don’t differ in the way you might assume.

Data from New York’s Zeta Global suggests that given the rise in travel bookings, unvaccinated Americans are more comfortable traveling – and to more populated places – than vaccinated people.

Vaccinated people wait longer to travel

Zeta Global conducted a survey of 3,700 US consumers in mid-March and combined the results with information on hotel and airport visits by respondents in February and March.

In the survey, 67% of vaccinated respondents said they won’t travel until the end of May, but only 59% of non-vaccinated Americans said they would wait that long.

Vaccinated care more about health measures

More than 80% of vaccinated people who responded to the survey said they were concerned about public health restrictions at intended destinations, compared with just 38% of unvaccinated travelers who shared this concern.

It is possible that vaccinated people will be more comfortable traveling when there are health restrictions, while non-vaccinated travelers will be more interested in how local restrictions limit their travel, said David Steinberg, CEO of Zeta Global.

The survey found that 62% of unvaccinated travelers were “not at all” concerned with public health restrictions in their travel destinations, while only 19% of vaccinated travelers said so.

Travel to different places

Zeta Global data showed that the top travel destinations for February and March as a whole were New York City, Denver, Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Philadelphia, and two cities in Florida – Orlando and Tampa.

However, the trends diverged when broken down by travelers’ vaccination status, said Neej Gore, the company’s chief data officer.

Top travel destinations for vaccinated travelers

  • Minneapolis-St. Paul
  • Columbus, Ohio
  • Washington, DC
  • Boston
  • Baltimore
  • Cincinnati
  • Indianapolis

Source: Zeta Global, hotel and flight visit

“Vaccinated Americans choose locations in the Northeast and Midwest,” Gore told CNBC, adding that the unimmunized had traveled to locations in the south and locations along the west coast.

Top travel destinations for unvaccinated travelers

  • Houston
  • Miami-Fort Lauderdale
  • The angel
  • Salt Lake City
  • San Antonio
  • Seattle-Tacoma
  • Austin, Texas
  • Little Rock, Ark.

Source: Zeta Global, hotel and flight visit

However, April travel data showed a shift in travel habits. Unvaccinated people went to densely populated cities, while the unvaccinated went to vast areas according to travel dates compiled by Zeta.

“Las Vegas is the city with the greatest relative change,” said Gore, citing data showing that the number of unvaccinated travelers visiting Las Vegas hotels tripled in April from the previous month during the month The number of vaccinated visitors there has declined.

Similarly, the number of unvaccinated travelers going to Florida in April increased (+ 6%) but declined (-16%) among vaccinated travelers.

Unofficially known as “Big Sky Country,” Montana attracted more vaccinated than unvaccinated Americans last month.

Mike Kemp | In Pictures Ltd. | Corbis historical | Getty Images

The trends in Florida are primarily due to in-depth travel to Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Zeta Global said. Trips there increased by 77% for unvaccinated travelers and 33% for vaccinated travelers.

While the Northeast and Midwest continue to be popular destinations for vaccinated travelers, “more vaccinated respondents are currently traveling to the Northwest,” said Gore, based on data showing an increase in vaccinated travelers to Oregon, Washington, Montana and Dakotas.

Travel to these states did not increase among unvaccinated people, with the exception of Oregon, which, according to the company, is mainly due to increased travel by both groups to Portland.

Northeast Europeans fly less

Adobe’s Digital Economy Index 2021, published last month, showed regional differences in summer travel habits. The report showed that Northeast Europeans fly less than other Americans. The flight bookings in March come from the region and only account for 56% of the prepandemic levels. This number does not match the booking setbacks from the West (63%) and the South (70%) and the Midwest (75%).

Adobe’s research shows that Northeasterners’ flight purchases are more closely related to regional vaccination rates. For every 1% increase in vaccinations in the Northwest, there was a 3.2% increase in flight bookings, the highest of any region in the United States.

It is those who are not vaccinated who should be afraid of traveling.

Harry Severance

Duke University School of Medicine

“The northeast was badly hit in the early days of the pandemic, which likely caused residents to restrict themselves when it came to travel and social interactions,” said Taylor Schreiner, director of Adobe Digital Insights.

However, the area is densely populated, said Schreiner, so that “viable alternatives for seeing family and friends” exist.

“A large part of the US population is accessible to New York by car,” he said.

“Increased risk” for those not vaccinated

Harry Severance, an associate professor at Duke University School of Medicine, said people who were vaccinated early are more likely to be concerned about contracting Covid-19 and have a better knowledge of the acute and chronic effects of the disease.

“So I suspect that this group will continue to have significant concerns about contracting the disease after vaccination,” he said.

Severance said the thought process is changing as evidence shows people who have been vaccinated are “less susceptible” to Covid-19 infections, and when they do get sick, infections are typically mild with a “significantly reduced ability to spread the disease.” “.

“It is those who are not vaccinated who should be afraid to travel,” he said.

“Those who are not vaccinated are at increased risk when they congregate in large groups of likewise unvaccinated people,” Severance said, “especially when these groups congregate from across the country as the risk increases, various Being exposed to Covid variants. ” . “

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Entertainment

Stereotypes Are Rife Amongst Asian and Pacific Islander Movie Roles, Research Finds

Stereotypes Are Rife Among Asian and Pacific Islander Film Roles, Study Finds

Of the 1,300 top-grossing films released from 2007 to 2019, only 44 starred an Asian or Pacific Islander – and a third of the roles went to a single actor, Dwayne Johnson, a study found.

In 2019 in particular, by the end of the film, more than a quarter of Asian or Pacific islanders had died, and more than 41 percent had “experienced a degradation.” Two-thirds of Asian or Pacific islanders mirrored stereotypes, and nearly 20 percent spoke either a non-English language or English with a non-American accent, according to a study by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, funded by Amazon Studios and the UTA Foundation.

Analysis of the 1,300 films released Tuesday also found that only 3.4 percent of the films featured Asian or Pacific islanders in leading or coleading roles. (In relation to the US population, 7.1 percent identify themselves in this category.)

Other sobering statistics: Of 51,159 people speaking, only 5.9 percent were Asian, Asian-American, or Hawaiian or Pacific islanders. 39 percent of the films did not include a single Asian or Pacific islander.

The study also broke the statistics by gender: four Asian or Pacific islanders were cast in six lead roles, compared to 336 unique white male actors over the same period – a ratio of 84 white male actors per Asian or Pacific islander actress.

Only 13 percent of the roles of Asian or Pacific islanders in 2019 films were classified as “fully human.” The study’s authors defined that they have a full spectrum of relationships and don’t take on any role as a foreigner, buddy, or villain. (Johnson’s Dr. Bravestone character in “Jumanji: The Next Level” or Constance Wu’s character Destiny in “Hustlers” were considered good examples.)

The study, led by Nancy Wang Yuen, professor at Biola University, and Stacy L. Smith of the University of Southern California at Annenberg, also found that of the 600 highest-grossing films released from 2014 to 2019, only 15 were Asian and Pacific Islander characters abstained from identifying themselves as LGBTQ and only 26 Asian and Pacific islanders were shown with a physical, cognitive or communicative disability in the 500 films released from 2015 to 2019 with a physical, cognitive or communicative disability.

The researchers also looked at representation among filmmakers, finding that of the 1,447 credited directors in the sample, only 3.5 percent were Asian or Pacific islanders – and only three were women. (Jennifer Yuh Nelson won two awards for the Kung Fu Panda franchise and Loveleen Tandan for Slumdog Millionaire.) No Asian or Pacific Islander was the sole director of any of the 1,300 films in the study. (The research period ended before the publication of “Nomadland”, whose director Chloé Zhao won the Oscar for best director this year as the first woman of color, first Chinese woman and second woman.) Among the producers, 2.5 percent were Asian or Pacific islanders , as do 3.3 percent of casting directors.

The results of the study are due to the increasing hostility and violence against Asians in the United States. The nonprofit Stop AAPI Hate announced in March that nearly 3,800 anti-Asian hate incidents were reported over the course of a year during the pandemic, mostly against women.

“Whether through the lack of API characters or through stereotypical representations, entertainment can be a means of perpetuating inaccurate and dehumanizing portrayals of the API community,” the report concludes.

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Business

CDC examine finds disparities in protection between rural and concrete areas

CDC study finds disparities in coverage between rural and urban areas

An El Paso Fire Department health worker administers the Moderna vaccine for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a vaccination center near the Santa Fe International Bridge in El Paso, Texas on May 7, 2021.

Jose Luis Gonzalez | Reuters

According to a new study released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people in rural areas are receiving lower levels of Covid-19 vaccines than in urban areas, potentially boosting the country’s progress in ending the disease Pandemic hinders.

The CDC analyzed county-level vaccine administration data in American adults who received their first dose of the Pfizer BioNTech or Moderna Covid-19 vaccine or a single dose of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine. It examined data from 49 states and the District of Columbia through April 10.

The agency found, at 38.9% and 45.7%, respectively, a lower percentage of residents in rural districts who had received at least one shot than in urban districts. The CDC also found that people in rural areas who received a vaccine often had to travel farther to get it than people in urban areas.

“The hesitation of vaccines in rural areas is a major obstacle that doctors, health care providers and local partners must address in order to achieve equitable vaccination,” the CDC wrote in the report.

“As the availability of COVID-19 vaccines increases, public health doctors should continue to work with health care providers, pharmacies, employers, religious leaders and other partners in the community to identify and address barriers to COVID-19 vaccination in rural areas eliminate, “added the agency.

The new data comes as more studies have shown that rural residents may be more reluctant to get a vaccine. A report by the Kaiser Family Foundation published in April found that 3 out of 10 rural residents either “definitely won’t” get vaccinated or will only do so when needed.

CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky brought up the study before it was released Tuesday, saying the Biden administration was determined to reach communities “in every corner of the United States.”

The US is working to “ensure that access to vaccines is fair whether you live in rural or urban areas,” she said during a Covid-19 briefing at the White House. “Public health workers nationwide are working to provide trusted information through trusted messengers.”

Walensky said CDC employees attended the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama last weekend, where U.S. health officials were doing Covid tests and vaccinations.

“We’re really making strides across the country to make sure people have access to vaccines,” she said.

Tuesday’s study did not calculate coverage by race and ethnicity, according to the CDC, because information about it was missing for 40% of the data.

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Business

Germany’s transfer to EVs to have an effect on hundreds of staff, new examine says

Germany's move to EVs to affect thousands of workers, new study says

The underbody of an ID.3. On January 29, 2021, work will be carried out on an electric vehicle at a Volkswagen plant in Dresden.

Matthias Rietschel | Image Alliance | Getty Images

The switch to electric vehicles could affect thousands of workers in Germany in the coming years, the Munich-based Ifo Institute announced on Thursday.

The Ifo study, carried out on behalf of the German Association of the Automotive Industry, highlights some of the potential challenges that lie ahead of us when governments try to withdraw diesel and gasoline vehicles in favor of low-emission and zero-emission vehicles.

In a statement released along with the report’s release, the research institution said that an estimated 75,000 production workers in the German automotive sector would be retiring by the middle of this decade.

“However, if internal combustion engine car production declines to the extent required by current emissions regulations by 2025, at least 178,000 employees will be affected by the switch to electric motors,” he added.

That cohort, Ifo explained, would consist of “workers who manufacture groups of products that are directly or indirectly dependent on the internal combustion engine, 137,000 of whom are directly employed in the automotive industry”.

Ifo President Clemens Fuest described the “transition to electromobility” as “a major challenge, especially for automotive suppliers in which medium-sized companies dominate”.

“It is important to keep high-skilled jobs in the remaining production of internal combustion engines and in electric vehicles without slowing down structural change,” he said.

A major transition does indeed seem on the horizon. The federal government wants 7 to 10 million electric vehicles to be registered in the country by the end of this decade. In January, Reuters, citing the German road traffic authority, announced that sales of battery-electric vehicles in 2020 were over 194,000, which is a three-fold increase.

By and large, the EU executive, the European Commission, wants to have at least 30 million zero-emission cars on the road by 2030 as part of its “Strategy for Sustainable and Intelligent Mobility”.

According to the International Energy Agency, around 3 million new electric cars were registered last year, a record amount and an increase of 41% from 2019.

Oliver Falck, Director of the Ifo Center for Industrial Organization and New Technologies, wanted to highlight the systemic change that is already taking place.

“The development of the production figures already shows that completely different parts are required for electric cars than for internal combustion engines,” he said, noting that “this transformation has not yet manifested itself to the same extent in the number of employees.”

“The transformation that can be expected in the number of employees will not be fully cushioned by the retirement of the baby boomers,” he said. “Since companies are already aware of this gap, they have the opportunity to take appropriate measures such as retraining and further training in good time.”

According to Reuters, the Ifo survey “did not take into account the potential creation of new jobs in the manufacture of electric vehicles or in the production of battery cells”.