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According to the virologist, alcohol does not have a major impact on immune protection
Photo: Frank Rumpenhorst / dpa
According to the Frankfurt virologist Sandra Ciesek, the population overestimates the risk of side effects from vaccinations. This also applies to sinus vein thrombosis after vaccination with AstraZeneca - even for young people who rarely get seriously ill with Covid-19. "That is certainly a problem: With all these media reports and the attention paid to this topic, your own risk of developing a thrombosis is actually overestimated," said the director of the Institute for Medical Virology at the Frankfurt University Hospital on Tuesday in the NDR podcast " The Coronavirus Update «.
Ciesek pointed out a "risk calculator" from Cambridge University in England.
For certain age groups, it compares the risk of severe Covid 19 disease and the risk of developing such a thrombosis after vaccination with AstraZeneca.
The calculation clearly shows "that the vaccine is far safer than the risk of Covid-19 infection," said Ciesek.
If the incidence is high, this conclusion applies even to younger people who have a relatively low risk of severe disease.
For 20 to 30-year-olds, the risk of having to go to an intensive care unit with Covid-19 is twice as high as the risk of serious damage from the vaccine.
In the age group between 60 and 70, this risk is more than 600 times higher.
According to the virologist, alcohol does not have a major impact on immune protection.
However, it is not advisable to drink a lot of alcohol around a vaccination appointment.
“After all, large amounts of alcohol are poisonous to the body.
And if the body is busy with the immune system after a vaccination, it shouldn't be burdened with toxins as well. "
Asthma spray is not a "game changer"
The Frankfurt virologist is skeptical that the budesonide asthma spray will be decisive in the fight against Covid-19. “I wouldn't call it a 'game changer'”. Previously, the SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach had called the Oxford University study published in "The Lancet" a possible "game changer". "The results make clinical sense because the anti-inflammatory effect in the lungs can prevent the deterioration of lung function," wrote the doctor on Twitter. There are also hardly any side effects.
The study had "some weaknesses", countered Ciesek: Few patients, no control group - but above all, the oxygen demand of the patients did not change after administration of the spray.
"Still, of course, it gives hope," said Ciesek.
It is possible "that there may be subgroups who benefit from it."
Under no circumstances should people get budesonide on their own now.
"Above all, you shouldn't take it prophylactically before you even become infected, it wouldn't do anything and would even be counterproductive."
kim / dpa
