Second corona wave? That has changed since spring - and that's why it's "just as serious"

In the past few days, the intensive care units have filled up again due to the second corona wave.

A clinic director explains the seriousness of the situation.

• Germany has been infected by the insidious

  coronavirus *

  for months

  haunted.

• After the containment of new infections, there is now a threat of a

  second wave

  .

• The lung specialist

  Christian Karagiannidis

  warns of the dangers.

Cologne - The

has presented people in Germany and almost everywhere in the world with great challenges.

Life has changed radically and, according to many politicians and scientists, that will not change anytime soon - because the number of Covid patients in intensive care units has increased again in recent days.

Scientists expect second corona wave

Christian Karagiannidis

heads the ECMO center at the Lung Clinic Cologne-Merheim.

He was in charge of the largest evaluation to date of Covid intensive care patients in Germany, which was presented by the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine and the Technical University of Berlin, among others.

Concrete epidemiological differences between the developments in spring and the currently looming

can only be determined in December at the earliest, but this time the average age of the infected should be very low.

"As a result, there are - relatively - fewer intensive cases, as this mainly affects the generations with people older than 50 years," Karagiannidis said in an interview with the "Tagesspiegel".

As the number of infections increases, concerns about a second #corona wave are growing.

According to intensive care physician Prof. Christian Karagiannidis in #coronanachgehakt, the hospitals are well prepared.

But it still applies to contain # COVID19 📲 https://t.co/RkoMPRyui8.

pic.twitter.com/sEd6UAqhOZ

- phoenix (@phoenix_de) August 22, 2020

Corona: Expert warns - "Covid-19 is now just as serious as it was in the first wave"

“We currently know little about the severity.

I can only say from our experience in Cologne that Covid-19 is

now

.

We don't see any differences in patient symptoms or disease severity, ”warned the lung specialist.

It is worrying that the number of intensive care patients in hospitals has increased again in the last few days.

“You now have to see how high the proportion of people who are ventilated is.

At its peak it was 80 percent, currently around 50 to 60 percent.

Let's see how it looks in two weeks, ”said Karagiannidis.

But there is also

in the treatment of Covid-19.

With the new evidence from the drugs, hospital staff have more options in fighting the virus.

"Remdesivir has become the standard in the early stages of the disease and dexamethasone in severe cases in the later stage," said Karagiannidis.

In addition, the doctors and nurses should be much more

than at the beginning of the pandemic, which contributes a lot to success, especially in intensive care medicine.

Virologist Hendrik Streeck: "We must not panic every time the number of infections increases".

In the #FAZ interview, he expresses himself calmly.

Corona could become a "permanent wave", but other diseases should not be neglected https://t.co/wIkyQtnuDD #fplus via @faznet

- Christian Schubert (@Ch_Schubert) August 7, 2020

Virologists about coronavirus: second wave or permanent wave in Germany?

Germany's virologists, who have been in the public eye for months, are meanwhile busily debating the terminology.

The 

, author of the Heinsberg study, for example, avoids the term "

".

In an interview with the

he spoke 

 of a "

that keeps going up and down".

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the World Medical Association, Frank Ulrich Montgomery, shares this assessment.

The 68-year-old also chose the words "permanent wave of infections" with a view to the insidious coronavirus.

Ultimately, all experts agree that the second phase of the pandemic will last a very long time.